The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking

by Craig Keener

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2016

Overview

In this major work, leading New Testament scholar Craig Keener explores an important but generally neglected area of Pauline theology, Paul’s teaching about the mind. Paul speaks of the corrupted mind and the mind of the flesh, but he also speaks of the mind of Christ, the mind of the Spirit, and the renewal of the mind. In articulating these points, Paul adapts language from popular intellectual thought in his day, but he does so in a way distinctively focused on Christ and Christ’s role in the believer’s transformation. Keener enables readers to understand this thought world so they can interpret Paul's language for contemporary Christian life.

The Mind of the Spirit helps overcome a false separation between following the Spirit and using human judgment and also provides a new foundation for relating biblical studies and Christian counseling. It will appeal to professors, students, and scholars of the New Testament as well as pastors and church leaders.

Key Features

• Examines Paul’s various teachings on the mind
• Discusses Paul’s application of intellectualism related to Christ

Contents

• The Corrupted Mind (Rom. 1:18–32)
• The Mind of Faith (Rom. 6:11)
• The Mind of the Flesh (Rom. 7:22–25)
• The Mind of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5–7)
• A Renewed Mind (Rom. 12:1–3)
• The Mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:15–16)
• A Christlike Mind (Phil. 2:1–5; 3:19–21; 4:6–8)
• The Heavenly Mind (Col. 3:1–2)

Top Highlights

“Insofar as any battle remains, it is a battle of faith in Christ’s triumph rather than a self-focused struggle to defeat the flesh by means of the flesh.” (Page 54)

“Paul, however, argues that our strongest level of identification should be our identity as followers of Christ: embedded in a new community, a new relationship with God, and thinking as Christ would, being conformed to his image (cf. Rom. 6:5; 8:29). For Paul, this new identity is not merely a cognitive strategy but an affirmation of a new reality.” (Page 33)

“His understanding of faith in Christ’s work of righteousness includes accepting righteous status in Christ and leaving the righteousness-forming work to God. In Romans 7 Paul will argue that mere religion or knowledge of God’s standards does not transform the identity of the sinful person in God’s sight; it simply reorganizes the flesh in a more orderly and less harmful way.¹⁶⁴ What alternative solution does Paul offer? The mind of faith—the mind that trusts in Christ—recognizes a new identity, in which the past is forgiven and one’s bodily impulses do not set one’s agenda.” (Page 52)

“What interpreters have often missed, however, is how Paul uses cognition to connect these key elements. How does one move from righteous identity to righteous living? Paul emphasizes the importance of a right understanding corresponding to the divine perspective—an understanding that may complement, or even more likely that functions as another aspect of, what Paul calls faith.” (Pages xv–xvi)

“Just as Paul depends on Christ for being righted, he depends on God’s Spirit for being able to appropriate the cognitive moral character consonant with one who is righted. One who behaves by the new identity is thus walking by the Spirit. For Paul, the new frame for thinking is effective because it depends on the reality of Christ and thus of the new identity in him.” (Page 115)

Praise for the Print Edition

Craig Keener has filled a significant gap in Pauline studies as only he could do: with thousands of references to ancient sources to help us understand Paul’s perspectives in context. The result is a work full of exegetical, theological, and even pastoral insight into the human mind according to Paul—especially the mind transformed in Christ.

—Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore, MD

In Romans, Paul interacts more fully with the thought world of his day than in any of his other letters. Only someone who is wholly familiar with the richness of Jewish scripture and tradition; with the ancient philosophies of Stoics, Platonists, Epicureans, and others; and with the reality of human experience can fully appreciate why Paul argues as he does and the effectiveness of his argument. Craig Keener is one such scholar, and his rich exposition of key passages in Romans, in ongoing debate with the history of interpretation, brings out the point and force of Paul’s argument for his own time again and again, and in a way that reinvigorates Paul's argument for a very different time. Further exposition of related passages in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, and Colossians displays the same quality and enhances the value of the volume. And not to be missed is the concluding postscript, posing some appropriately challenging pastoral implications.

—James D.G. Dunn, Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, Durham University

Only a scholar with Craig Keener’s nous could write the most authoritative work to date on Paul’s belief in the transformation of a person’s mind from godless reasoning to possessing the mind of Christ. Keener describes the Pauline vision of the believing mind as one immersed in the Jesus story, freed by the Spirit’s power, bathed in divine wisdom, and oriented toward heaven. This book will, quite literally, open your mind to Paul’s theology of the mind.

—Michael Bird, lecturer in theology, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

Product Details

• Title: The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking
• Author: Craig Keener
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2016
• Logos Release Date: 2017
• Pages: 445
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul › Theology; Thought and thinking › Biblical teaching
• ISBNs: 9781493404612, 9780801097768, 149340461X, 0801097762
• Resource ID: LLS:MINDOFTHESPIRIT
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:31:15Z

About Craig Keener

Dr. Craig S. Keener (PhD, Duke University) is professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, and is the author of 17 books, four of which have won book awards in Christianity Today. One, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, has sold more than half a million copies. He has authored scholarly commentaries on Matthew, John (two volumes), Acts (four volumes), and more briefly on Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Revelation. Dr. Keener is married to Dr. Médine Moussounga Keener, who spent 18 months as a refugee in her nation of Congo before their marriage.