The Spirit in Galatia

An investigation of the term pneuma in Paul's letter to the Galations is needed from the side of NT scholarship, because debate continues over the question about the nature of the crisis in the churches of Galatia and, therefore, about the historical occasion of Paul's statements about the Spirit. The focus of this debate is the character of Paul's opponents in the Galatian churches. Currently, the consensus is limited to a single point: that someone was engaging in a circumcizing campaign in the Galatian churches. But on the other points no agreement exists.

The two parts of this study are distinguished in that the first part deals with the historical context of Paul's statements about the Spirit in Galatians: that is, the events because of which Paul wrote the letter, and the nature and social setting of expriences of the Spirit in the life of the Galatian churches. The second part deals with the theology of the Spirit in Paul's message to the Galatians, which has three aspects-soteriology, christology, and eschatology.
-from the Introduction

This important and closely argued study of the experience of the Spirit marks a real advance in the discussion of Galatians. Lull's work, a dissertation directed by H. D. Betz, follows many of the lines laid out by Betz in his commentary and elsewhere, but Lull is an independent scholar who makes his own judgments and carries the discussion forward at several key points. . . . Lull shows how the Spirit can be seen as more than an existentialist understanding of existence on the one hand, and more than a universal creative Spirit on the other.
-William A. Beardslee
Journal of Biblical Literature

The study is a welcome contribution to a neglected area of research. It will prove useful to pastors since it treats responsibly a topic on which so much nonsense is written. . . . The treatment of the Spirit in Galatia is timely, and the link that is forged with ethics is suggestive.
-Calvin J. Roetzel
Interpretation


David J. Lull is Associate Professor of New Testament at the Wartburg Theological Seminary. He is co-author (with John B. Cobb, Jr.) of Romans (Chalice Press, 2005) and is currently working on Galatians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Philemon, Chalace Press Commentaries for Today.