Table Of ContentTheMind ofChrist
The Mind of Christ
David Scott
contniuum
Continuum 80MaidenLane
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LondonSEI 7NX NY10038
www.continuumbooks.com
©DavidScott, 2007
Allrightsreserved. No partofthis publicationmaybe reproducedor
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retrievalsystem,withoutpriorpermissionfromthepublishers.
Firstpublished2007
BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
Acataloguerecordfor this bookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
ISBN0-8264-9074-3
Typesetby TechBooks, NewDelhi,India
Printedandboundby AshfordColourPressLtd., Gosport,Hants.
Contents
Introduction 1
1 'ButwhodoyousayIam?' 6
2 Bywayofimitation 16
3 The mind has mountains 34
4 But wehavethemindofChrist 56
5 A mind to confront 70
6 A mind to imaginewith 84
7 A mind to pray 98
8 TheChristofPsalms 109
9 The wisdomofChrist 121
10 Christminds: TheSt JohnPassion 134
Introduction
'It isnotliterallytheface ofJesusthatwehaveto seek; the
picturingimaginationwillnotgreatlyaidus. Weseekhis
heavenlymind. Wemustbe bold,therefore,to conceive
whatit islike to be mindedas he isminded...wemustbe
Christin his thought, as far as weare able.' Austin Farrer'
The collegesermonattheologicalcollegewasalwaysacrucialmo
mentforthoseofuswhoweresoontogooutfromthewombofstu
dentdaysto thecoal-faceofparishlife.For thesermonyoucould
preach on anything you wanted and choose your own text, and
it was preachedbeforethewhole college. The choicewas vertigi
nous,butgenerallypeoplespokefromtheirhearttheonethingthat
hadbecomemostimportantto themin thecourseoftheirlifeand
training.Onethrewallhis notesin theair andsteppeddown;one
chosethe compass points of Donne's famous poem about lovers.
RolyBain,Ireadrecentlyinhisautobiography,preachedonclown
ing. Lookingback,thesermonwasprobablyasymbolofwhatthe
future heldin thewayoflife choicesandstyleofministry.
Ipreached in a very discursive way about trying to put onthe
mind of Christ. I hope it wasn't entirely delusions of grandeur
but it was a time when feelings and thoughts, the heart and the
head,hadmetin somesortofcreativetension,andthatphraseof
Paul's,'putonthemindofChrist'pointedtoalife'swork.Through
childhood and school, faith had been very much about sensing
the presence of God and responses to that from the heart. The
rollercoaster emotional life was uppermost through those years,
respondingtochurchservices,thelanguageofworship,theglories
ofthelandscape,andthesecretsofpoetrywrittenandread.Itwas
all verymuchanaffairoftheheart.
2 TheMind ofChrist
Then came the challenge of theology. Feeling sure that in the
end Iwould like to be ordained, theology seemed to be the most
suitable subject to study at university and slipping into a church
collegeunder the disguise of an Englishliteraturestudent, Ithen
changedcoursesandtookonthechallengeofacademictheology.It
wasabracingandinsomewaysaromanticchoice. Ihadreadabout
Abelardand themedievalschoolsandbeendeeplyinfluencedby
the poetry of John Donne. What I hadn't bargained for was the
complexityofGreekandHebrewverbsandtheclosenesswehad
to achievein relationto thetextofscripture,Mostimportantofall
wasthatitprovidedthestimulusandchallengetodiscusshowwe
canknowanythingaboutJesus, let aloneunlockthesanctuaryof
his mind. Itwasat thistimethattheclashbetweenwhatIfelt and
whatIthoughtbeganto pitchits battle.
Five years laterIclimbed the steps of the pulpit in that incom
parableOxfordshire church, from which Ihad heard Archbishop
Ramsey preach the Three Hours only a few months before. The
chosen text was a last-minute addition, 'and Jesus went off into
thehillsbyhimself', notexactlybecausethatwas goingto be the
subject of the sermon, but because that sort of escape route was
mypreferredoptionat thatparticulartime. Iwantedto takeJesus
and his love of solitude into the pulpitwith me. Ifelt sure that it
was in such times of solitude that Jesus' mind would have been
mostcreativelynurtured and the substanceof the sermonwas to
dowithhowwemightcomecloserto themysteryof thatmind.
In the35yearsofministrysincethen,thethemeofhowwe 'put
onthemindofChrist'stillhoversoverme. Whatthatphrase,with
itsconcentrationon'mind',doesnotimmediatelyevokeistheway
inwhichtherattle-bagoffeelingsaboutthings,theheartaches,the
heart searchings, the lifting up of the heart have coalesced and
beeninformedbythesharper,tougherattitudesofmind.Weshall
see in the case of Jesus that those two concepts, heart and mind,
becomeone orientation, attitude and springfor action. Theyalso
provide one unmoveable pointer for us to a destination we trust
in, as weset outto knowChrist,andareknownbyhim,andso to
enterintoa creativerelationshipwiththeverycentreofourfaith.
Introduction 3
Picking up the pen on a Saturday night to finalize the follow
ingday's sermon,thetexthasfocused a kaleidoscopeofdifferent
thoughtsandfeelings.Weask, 'whatisitaboutthistext, thisword,
this action, this parable that reveals one layer more for me about
whatGodis tryingto showthroughJesus?'
I've always been a great devourer of ecclesiastical biography.
I've wanted to know how people have got where they are, what
major influences havebeen pressingupon them, and where they
have experienced what they have experienced - the terrain, the
landscape,theweather- bothspiritualand physical. Mostlythey
havebeenmodernbiographies, in which theaccountseemsto be
quitestraightforward.Therehasbeenforthelast200yearsonlyone
wayofwritingaboutaperson'slife:youbeginatthebeginning,go
throughthelifeuntildeath,andthenstop.The NewTestament,at
leastthegospels,haveasimilarnarrativethrustwithJesus'life,but
therearebiggapsinwhatwenowconsidertobecrucialformative
periodsinaperson'slife,suchastheperiodofchildhood.Itisthese
differencesin biographicalwritingwhichmakeastraightforward
attempt to copy Jesus, to 'put on the mind of Christ', a complex
oneand one,becauseofits complexity,ofcontinuingfascination.
Myjourneythroughministrybetweenthelatesixtiesandthebe
ginningofthethirdmillenniumhashadtoencompasstherealityof
modern,scientificproceduresineverysphereoflife.This includes
most importantly a searchingcritiqueof the literary evidencefor
the life of Christ and also of the mind that seeks to discover the
mind of another. On one level nothing seems stable, and noth
ingcan be saidthatcannotbe contradictedaboutlife,Jesus,God,
anything. Isuppose that's whywe hammer in markers forged in
existentialism,justtosaythatwhatwefeelaboutsomethinghasa
certainvalidityaboutit,regardlessalmostofanythingelse. Itmay
notbe universallytrue,butifit'strueforme thenithasat leastthe
qualityofpersonaltruth,integrity,and meaning. In thatpersonal
reality, whichissuchacommonexperiencein religiousbelief,the
experience of things stopping, being fixed, being as we say, true,
mightwellbe as trueas wecan get.
