The Mind of Christ

The Mind of Christ Commentary by Clementine Kane Cite Share Show Bible Passage An image of the Spirit descending at Pentecost articulates in concrete terms the more abstract ideas of 1 Corinthians 2. In this page from an illustrated thirteenth-century psalter, we see the disciples assembled around Mary as the Spirit descends. The book was produced in France for Ingeborg, the Danish wife of the French king Phillip II (Deuchler 1970: 57). In this version, Mary is rendered as a crowned medieval noblewoman, perhaps modelled on Ingeborg herself. The disciples, subtly individualized, respond with gestures rather than facial expressions to the event unfolding above and through them. Crimson streaks flow to each head from the throat of a haloed dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The dove itself bears a cruciform halo as if to underscore the connection between God the Son and God the Spirit. Christ presides over the bestowal of the Spirit—the gift of his ongoing presence to believers. The figure of Christ is situated both within the architectural space of the room and beyond it, as delineated by an orange crescent and undulating blue emanations. He is the source of the gifts given by the Holy Spirit, although his image is a surprisingly rare inclusion in the imagery of Pentecost. In the final verses of this chapter, Paul unites the two themes he has introduced—the startling simplicity of his message and the need for mature spiritual wisdom granted by God. To receive the gifts of the Spirit of God is to acquire the ‘mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:16). For Paul, each person needs the indwelling of the Spirit to understand the things of God; without this infusion, Jesus’s death is ‘a stumbling block’ and ‘folly’ (1:23). The moment of Pentecost pictured in this manuscript is the moment of the bestowal of the ‘mind of Christ’. Although the figures are rendered in a way that reflects the context of the work’s patroness, the golden background sets this scene apart from any particular time and space, perhaps emphasizing the availability of this spiritual transformation both to the first followers of Christ and the viewers of the manuscript. References Deuchler, Florens. 1970. ‘The Artists of the Ingeborg Psalter’, Gesta, 9.2: 57–58