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