The concept of faith in Mark and Paul

Faith is a central concept in both Mark and Paul's undisputed letters and serves as a useful basis for comparison between the two. There have been few attempts to compare faith in Mark and Paul, most focusing on what is believed rather than the nature of faith itself.1 The following discussion understands faith as the expected or hoped for response by human beings to God, especially as expressed in response to the good news set forth in word and action. It includes therefore much more than a word study of the rum -stem, not least because sometimes faith's response is depicted not by such words but by narrative description. It necessarily includes beliefs, which are addressed more directly in other contributions to this volume. In this chapter they cannot be ignored, because how faith responds has much to do with what faith believes, but they will be dealt with only in overview. The chapter first explores faith in Mark (understood as the earliest Gospel) and Paul (the undisputed letters) before turning to compare the two and reflect on the implications of the comparison