THE

MIND

of the

SPIRIT

Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking

CRAIG S. KEENER

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2016 by Craig S. Keener

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Keener, Craig S., 1960– author.

Title: The mind of the spirit : Paul’s approach to transformed thinking / Craig S. Keener.

Description: Grand Rapids, MI : Baker Academic, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015045921 | ISBN 9780801097768 (cloth)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Epistles of Paul—Theology. | Thought and thinking—Biblical teaching.

Classification: LCC BS2655.T57 K44 2016 | DDC 227/.06—dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045921

Unless noted otherwise, all translations of Scripture are those of the author.

Scripture quotations labeled NEB are from The New English Bible. Copyright © 1961, 1970, 1989 by The Delegates of Oxford University Press and The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. Reprinted by permission.

Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 4, “The Mind of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5–7),” is mostly new work, but, with the permission of Brill, incorporates a revision of Craig S. Keener, “ ‘Fleshly’ versus Spirit Perspectives in Romans 8:5–8,” in Paul: Jew, Greek and Roman, ed. Stanley Porter, PAST 5 (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 211–29.

Chapter 8, “The Heavenly Mind (Col. 3:1–2),” is adapted, with the permission of Sheffield Phoenix Press, from Craig S. Keener, “Heavenly Mindedness and Earthly Good: Contemplating Matters Above in Colossians 3.1–2,” JGRCJ 6 (2009): 175–90.

For our beloved children, David and Keren

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

What This Book Addresses

What This Book Is Not Addressing

Implications for Theological Reflection in Today’s Church

Abbreviations

1. The Corrupted Mind (Rom. 1:18–32)

The Pagan World’s Corrupted Mind

Summary of Paul’s Likely Argument

An Early Jewish Analogy

God’s Wrath against Idolaters

Information about God in Creation

Excursus: Knowledge of God in Ancient Mediterranean Thought

Corrupted Minds Resist Rational Evidence from Creation

The Folly of Idolatry

The Madness of Sin as Its Own Punishment

Handed Over to Irrational Desires

Thoughts Corrupted by Passions

Changing God’s Image (Rom. 1:23–27)

Unfit Minds (Rom. 1:28)

Conclusion

2. The Mind of Faith (Rom. 6:11)

Death with ...