To Live in the Spirit : Paul and the Spirit of God

To Live in the Spirit: Paul and the Spirit of God brings to light a fresh understanding of the Greek concept I (spirit) in Paul's ethical teaching. Placing Paul and his mixed audience within the Hellenistic Jewish and Greek (philosophical) traditions of the ancient world, this book examines his new message concerning I 's primary function in the acquisition of virtues and avoidance of vices. Looking in detail at the various ways in which Paul views I in his seven undisputed letters, Naveros Cordova explores I 's development from Paul's initial ethical reflections in his early letters to a more mature view in his later letters. Naveros Cordova argues that it is within these traditions, represented by major Hellenistic Jewish and Greco-Roman writers, that Paul construes the framework of his ethical teaching. Paul finds in the power of God's I a new ethical alternative for his mixed audience to living lives pleasing to God outside the observance of the Mosaic Law. Naveros Cordova demonstrates how Paul draws upon Platonic (immaterial I ) and Stoic (material I ) language that would have been familiar to his hearers in the early Christian communities to create a persuasive understanding of ethical performance and to show that the moral life of the believers springs from that I received from God. In his efforts to highlight I 's central role in his ethics, Paul moves beyond both traditions by describing the ';Christification' of I not only in Stoic terms, but also in Middle Platonic categories of the first century CE.