8 - Conclusion

Summary

Review

In this study I have offered a reading of Hebrews that situates faith and the faithfulness of Christ in the author’s wider understanding of the human story. I suggested that a study of “faith” in Hebrews need not be constrained to occurrences of πιστ- words only, nor should we assume that the author of Hebrews means the same thing every time uses he a πιστ- word. For this reason, I did not organize the study as a discussion of πιστ- words in Hebrews.

In the introduction (Chapter 1) we discovered that few scholars have devoted full studies to faith in Hebrews. Only two monographs treat the topic, and the shorter article-length studies do not offer holistic accounts of faith and faith’s place in the wider context within Hebrews. I suggested we approach faith in Hebrews in narrative terms, an approach that until now has not been applied to faith in Hebrews. I showed how the works of various philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and sociologists have named “story” as a basic component of human identity. Humans have a “narrative identity” and can adopt new stories. The rest of the thesis, then, is an investigation into the two narrative identities the author of Hebrews offers (the default human story with its assured conclusion [Part 2] and the new story with its assured conclusion [Part 3]), and how human beings can adopt this new narrative identity (Part 4).