A Restoration of Paul’s Understanding of Faith as a Relationship of Action

Review of Brent J. Schmidt, Relational Faith: The Transformation and Restoration of Pistis as Knowledge, Trust, Confidence, and Covenantal Faithfulness (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2022).

Abstract: Brent Schmidt builds on his earlier book on relational grace by tackling the topic of relational faith. This book provides intimate details of Greek and Latin terms and the gradual corruption of the original Pauline concept of faith by Augustine and other early and influential thinkers and theologians. Leading the reader through the conceptual reworking of the idea of faith by examining both well-known and lesser-known reformers, Schmidt ends up convincingly demonstrating two facts. First, that faith is concrete action, not just as abstract belief. Second, Joseph Smith’s concept of faith as a covenantal relationship built on mutual trust was not a latter-day invention. Instead, it is a restoration of the concept of faith as originally understood by members of the church at the time of Paul.