The law of the Spirit: Experience of the Spirit and displacement of the law in Romans 8:1--16 (Saint Paul).
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
Description: The subject of this study is focused upon Paul's explication of the relationship between Spirit and Law in Rom. 8:1--16. In Rom. 7:6, Spirit and Law are set in opposition to each other, which suggests discontinuity between them. However in Rom. 8:4 and probably within the phrase, "the law of the Spirit" in 8:2, they appear conjoined, operating in a more harmonious manner. Furthermore, in 8:2--16 Paul still employs the terms and concepts associated with covenantal nomism. If Paul advocates discontinuity between the Spirit and Law, we have to address the external tension between Paul and Jewish eschatology (cf. Jer. 31:31--34; Ezek. 36:25--27; 37:1--14). Even though there is unanimous consensus in Ancient and Second Temple Judaism of a harmonious relationship between Spirit and Law (i.e., the Spirit enables Torah obedience), Paul advocates discontinuity between them. The vacillation between Spirit and Law occurs frequently, throughout the Pauline corpus, regardless of the external circumstances. This is a sure indication that the tension is actually on the deeper level of Paul's convictional world. It is not simply Paul's response to the external pastoral exigencies, but conveys a tension between Paul's Jewish and Christian convictions.With the use of Leon Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory, we propose that in Rom. 8:1--16 Paul perceived a state of dissonance between his convictions on the Law and the Spirit, and more fundamentally, between covenantal nomism and his post-Damascus convictions. As a result, he engaged in a concentrated effort to reconcile these tensions by re-orienting the role of the Spirit around terms and concepts taken from Judaism's covenantal nomism. He was attempting to reduce the qualitative distinction between these two clusters of cognitions. Using Festinger's terminology, Paul attempted to diminish the dissonance between the Law and the Spirit in Rom. 8:1--16. He did this in two ways: (1) by establishing cognitive overlap between them and showing how the Law's goal was achieved by the Spirit (e.g., "the righteous requirement of the Law has been fulfilled in us...who walk according to the Spirit" [8:4]; re-orienting the Spirit's role in the present around concepts that were previously associated with the role of the Law in the former epoch: e.g., "life," "righteousness," "peace," "sonship") and, (2) by striving to achieve social validation for his cognitions within his own fictive family of Roman believers with whom he had a sense of affinity in that they all shared the experience of the Spirit ("the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God" [8:16]).
Notes: Adviser: Terence L. Donaldson.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of St. Michael's College, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-12, Section: A, page: 4595.