Pauline Pneumatology: Where Is the Spirit in Colossians?

Seminary Room N135

Many scholars have noted a significant difference between the theology of the undisputed Pauline writings and that of Colossians, namely the abundance of pneumatology in the former and its apparent absence in the latter. If Colossians is a Pauline epistle, where is the Spirit? This study seeks to answer this question by conducting an exegetical and intertextual analysis of pneumatological language and concepts in the undisputed Pauline writings and Colossians. This analysis leads the study to conclude that, while pneumatology features less prominently in Colossians than in the undisputed Pauline writings, it still is present in four explicit and seven implicit references that have deep linguistic and conceptual connections to the pneumatological content in the undisputed Pauline writings.