Chapter 1 surveys the landscape in contemporary religious epistemology and identifies seven main options for evaluating arguments for the existence of God. The chapter then articulates a mediating position by drawing on selected aspects of these options and concludes by looking at the neglected epistemological work of Jeffrey Stout.

Chapter 7 considers the ‘performative’ version presented in various ways by Paul Moser, Stuart Devenish, Rowan Williams, and Stanley Hauerwas. Here sainthood is understood in terms of intentional personal witness to the reality of God, and evidence is understood in performative terms as somehow ‘personified’ or enacted over the course of a whole life narrative. However, this chapter also includes a discussion of Jean Vanier and considers the possibility that ‘performances’ can count against and thus undermine the evidence for specific religions such as Christianity.

The many lines of epistemological and hagiological argument in Parts I, II, and III are finally brought together and their collective implications considered. Following a generative proposal by C. Stephen Evans, I conclude that saints in the relevant moral and religious senses identified in Part II are ‘natural signs’ pointing to the existence of God or the divine, and that each of the three versions of the hagiological argument needs to be considered on its own terms in regard to the relevant sign and its respective evidential value before their individual and cumulative force can be properly evaluated.

Chapter 1 begins by addressing how faith was central to Augustine’s theology, reading of Scripture, and Christian experience. Although Augustine understood faith as intellectual, this fit within his classical understanding of the human person. Moreover, though faith is intellectual, it is never without some motivating affection, is deeply interpersonal, and frequently has the sense of personal trust. Three early works ground and foreshadow his mature thinking on justification by faith. In de vera religione (True Religions), faith emerges as theological because it truly relates one to God through the incarnation; it is not merely pedagogical and instrumental, as in Neoplatonism. In de utilitate credendi (The Advantage of Believing), Augustine appeals to the necessity of faith in the case of students and friends to demonstrate how faith is virtuous. Lastly, de fide et symbolo (Faith and the Creed) shows how faith is fundamentally ecclesial through the inseparable relationship between the faith animating the believer and the faith received from the Church.

Paul’s Incarnational Ethic: In Galatians, Paul encourages the Galatians to imitate Jesus’ self-gift by sharing themselves with other believers and by considering what belongs to others in the community as their own.

Conclusion: Love, for Paul, is oriented towards a relationship of shared selves. As such, Paul’s ethics are more properly articulated as an expression not of egoism or of altruism but of ‘nostruism’.

This chapter surveys definitions of sainthood drawn from the three listed disciplines and engages with the work of Stephen Wilson, Peter Brown, Nadieszda Kizenko, William James, Robert L. Cohn, Aviad Kleinberg, Pierre Delooz, and Vincent W. Lloyd, among others. It then offers the volume’s interim conclusions and ongoing questions.

Despite the colossal importance of Augustine in the history of justification, no comprehensive study on this topic has yet been written. Moreover, the prevailing view is that Augustine understood justification to be caused by charity, not faith. This book aims to re-center Augustine’s theology of justification onto faith, and its thesis is that Augustine developed multiple accounts of how faith justifies based on whether faith is motivated by fear (which fails to justify), hope (which will justify), or love (which already justifies). The introduction then establishes the fundamentals of justification for Augustine: Augustine understands justification to consist in forgiveness and interior renewal, interprets iustificare (to justify) as making righteous by grace alone, and understands human iustitia (righteousness) as a created gift distinct from God’s righteousness. Lastly, the introduction shows how justification was central to Augustine, both to counter Pelagianism and to explain the work of God operative in the actions of the Church.

The Self-Sharing Messiah: Paul’s description of the Christ event in Galatians and elsewhere in his letters portray Jesus’ loving action not as self-sacrifice but as his positive participation in human and specifically Israelite condition. His action shares all that belongs to him with believers and establishes believers as competent moral actors and enables them to reciprocate his self-gift.

The Self, the Other, and the Telos of Prosocial Action: Paul and Ethicists Ancient and Modern: Ancient ethicists portrayed ideal behaviour as oriented towards the construction of shared selves whose interests are irreducibly common, whereas modern ethicists rejected the possibility of shared selfhood and so interpreted all actions along a spectrum of egoism and altruism. Paul’s letters appear to stand in the former tradition.

Chapter 3 begins with how the Donatist controversy shaped Augustine’s theology of justification by faith because the Donatists represented the real possibility of having faith without charity. The chapter then turns to the key features of Augustine’s theology of justification formed by the Pelagian controversy, especially participation in Christ’s righteousness. Both controversies pressed Augustine to consider how justification is by faith if faith sometimes fails to justify, as in Donatists, lax catechumens, and impenitent Christians. In both de spiritu et littera (The Spirit and the Letter) and his sermons, Augustine addresses this through a deeper psychology of faith: faith only obtains the grace of justification when it is motivated by hope and fails if it is motivated primarily by fear. The chapter concludes with de fide et operibus (Faith and Works), exploring Augustine’s understanding of faith, works, and charity, his criticism of sola fide (faith alone), and his development of a new terminology for justifying faith: fides Christi (faith in Christ).

The Self-Gift of a Crucified Messiah: Self-gifts in ancient discourse are about offering the self into relationship. The phrase ‘gave himself’ in Galatians 1.4 and 2.20 portrays Jesus as not ‘sacrificing’ himself but as giving himself as gift through his death.