Ethics and the Spirit in Paul (1): Religious-Ethical Empowerment through Infusion-Transformation?

This article, and its companion Ethics and the Spirit in Paul (2): Religious-Ethical Empowerment through the Relational Work of the Spirit, deal with the question of how, according to Paul, the Holy Spirit enables religious ethical life. This article challenges the infusion-transformation approach to Pauline pneumatology which builds on a Stoic concept of the Spirit as a material substance that transforms the substance of its recipients in order to enable ethical behaviour. The second article argues that in Paul (as well as in a significant number of texts from early Judaism) the Spirit transforms and empowers people for ethical living primarily through initiating and sustaining an intimate relationship with the divine and with the community of faith.