In the Fifth Lecture on Faith, which Joseph Smith edited and re-published as the official doctrine of the Church in 1844 (just two weeks before his death), we read in them that the Godhead (or the personages of the Father and Son) share the same Mind which is synonymous with the Holy Spirit or Spirit, or Mind, of the Father. Many have pondered the meaning of this use of the word Mind. I found it useful to analyze the New Testament language because that is what the School of the Prophets was doing, which is seeking to form a theology and doctrine for the LDS Church based on the Bible and the scriptural productions of Joseph Smith up to that point in 1835. Therefore, the following analysis of what the Fifth Lecture likely meant by "Mind" will help us understand the original Mormon Godhead and the original LDS concept of deification.
Let's begin with the book Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind by Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou. In the section Phronema in the Bible, the author writes:
In the New Testament we see the verb phroneo and the noun used in the New Testament and today, phronema [meaning attitude or mindset]. Peter insisted that Jesus not go to Jerusalem after He predicted His Passion. Both Matthew and Mark report the Lord’s rebuke of Peter using the verb phroneo: “Get behind me, Satan, for you are not thinking [ou phroneis] the things of God but of men” (Matt. 16: 23; Mark 8: 33, translation mine). Thus, phronema can also be used to refer to an intellectual or spiritual attitude that is not correct. A virtuous person shows good phronema, since a proper intellectual or spiritual attitude is reflected in one’s behavior. …
… Saint Paul often exhorted Christians to acquire the correct phronema, especially in his famous and influential Epistle to the Romans. He uses the verb phroneo once and the noun phronema three times in Romans 8: 5– 7 alone:
For those who are according to the flesh have their minds on [phronousin] the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, on the things of the Spirit. For the mindset [phronema] of the flesh is death, but the mindset [phronema] of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mindset [phronema] of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it cannot. [Translation by Eugenia Constantinou]
Then in the section The Mind of Christ, she writes:
In Romans 15: 5, Paul uses phronema again to promote unity of thought:
“May the God of patience and consolation grant you [to have] the same mindset [phronein] among one another according to Christ Jesus.” [Her translation]
In his short epistle to the Philippians, St. Paul uses phronema in various forms nine times, emphasizing proper attitude leading to correct behavior. …
… Phronema clearly involves the mind, but while it can be described as “mentality” or “mindset,” it is neither formed nor tested by rationalism, nor is it proven by empirical methods. The most significant link is between mind and behavior.
Phronema is almost synonymous with the well-known term “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2: 16), although the word Paul uses there is nous. Saint Paul explains that spiritual things can be understood only by spiritual people, not by the “natural” man, the unspiritual person. Spiritual things are understood by those who are spiritual because “we have the mind of Christ.” Since the Church is the Body of Christ, to have the mind of Christ, one must belong to His Body.
Note how the Book of Mormon speaks of the "natural man" as well and in similar terms. So that in the Book of Mormon, the nous (rhymes with “juice”) or mind of Christ would be the light of Christ generating enlightened-ones with the right attitude and mindset (e.g. bearing each other's burdens and mourning with those who mourn), with a luminous countenance among the righteous Christian Nephites.
She continues:
Clearly, from the very beginning of the Church, Christians were encouraged to acquire and maintain a specific Christian attitude, manner of thought, and way of behaving. …
Source: Loc 500-545
In the section Holiness of Mind Rather Than Deductive Reasoning, she explains:
... it is the intellect, or nous [that aspect of the human mind that has the capacity to contemplate God] that is enlightened and can articulate theological truths, but not through deductive reasoning and scholarly study. Rather it is through prayer and one’s relationship with God that the intellect achieves true enlightenment.
Loc 1216
This reminded me of the Book of Mormon constantly talking about revealing God's word(s) in plainness. The Book of Mormon emphasizes spiritual enlightenment over scholasticism. But what I want to point out here is her emphasis on the nous.
Then in the section The Nous and Knowledge of God, she begins by quoting Paul:
But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. (1 Cor. 3: 1– 3)
She then comments on this verse staying:
… Paul wanted to discuss advanced spiritual matters with the Corinthians, but he was able to address them only on an elementary level, since they lacked the proper phronema [mindset or understanding]. … [Phronema] is to have “the mind of Christ,” which is also the mind of the Church, since the Church is the Body of Christ.
… Paul encouraged Christians to have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2: 16), for which he used the Greek word nous.
… In the New Testament, St. Paul often used nous in its ordinary Greek cultural sense of “mind.”
Loc 1459-1480
If the authors of the Fifth Lecture on Faith are synthesizing all their Scriptures in 1835, which included Paul's epistles and letters, could they have been thinking this type of way when using the word Mind? I think they were and we will explore this more below.
Then in the section The Nous, the Holy Spirit, and Illumination, we read:
… In brief, the nous is not a “thing” that exists within you but the capacity to know God, to have a relationship with God. All human beings possess the capacity to know God as part of our human nature, since we were created for that purpose. As a result of the Fall, however, the nous was darkened. Through illumination of the nous we can know God and achieve theosis, or union with God.
From the earliest years of the Church, and still today in the Orthodox Tradition, Holy Baptism is called “Holy Illumination.” It marks the beginning of the process to restore our ability to know God and our relationship with God. At baptism and chrismation we receive the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit lives and works within us, we grow in our capacity to know God. We do not acquire true knowledge of God intellectually or through mental concepts but by direct experience, which occurs through participation in divine grace. By using the term nous to describe this capacity of the mind, the Fathers specifically distinguished it from the process of rational thought, which is what we typically consider to be the function of the mind. …
Note that this I think is essentially the theology of the Book of Mormon, with the "baptism of fire" being akin to chrismation; and the Seventh Lecture on Faith clearly teaches a similar form of theosis. She continues:
… to have the mind of Christ and the mind of the Church is to live a life directed by the Spirit. Before Christ ascended, He did not give us Scriptures, canons, doctrines, rules, or definitions. He bestowed the Holy Spirit on the Eleven in the Upper Room (John 20: 22) and later sent the Holy Spirit to the entire Church at Pentecost (Acts 2). The Holy Spirit illuminates, sanctifies, and actualizes the life in Christ. As we participate fully in the life of the Church, we acquire an Orthodox phronema, a mind shaped not by the world but by the Spirit.
[Phronema] in the biblical and patristic tradition means the whole way of thinking which prevails in someone from the way in which he lives, and from the relationship which he has with God. And literally, if the nous is darkened, then the whole mind is carnal. But if the nous is illuminated, which means that it has the Holy Spirit within it, then the whole mind is a mind of spirit and, of course, a mind of the Church.[5]
… “Carnality, according to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, does not refer to a category of ‘bodily’ sins, but the whole life of the human being who is not inspired by the Holy Spirit.”[6]
Loc 1480-1509
This is very interesting to me because in early Mormonism the "carnal man" was associated with the overly intellectual or theologically scholastic man of academia, rather than the humble Christian speaking plainly through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
She then explains that
… phronema forms as one is illuminated and guided by the Holy Spirit. … prayer also begins with the lips but must enter into the heart to truly become noetic [“of the nous”] prayer …
… If the nous is darkened, then the whole mind is carnal, but if the nous is illuminated, which means that it has the Holy Spirit within it, then the whole mind is a mind of spirit and, of course, a mind of the church [Body of Christ].
Loc 1510-1520
With this better understanding of the underlying Greek language of the New Testament regarding the nous (illuminated mind), let's now examine the Lectures on Faith to see if this understanding of the nous might be helpful in understanding what Joseph Smith and the other contributors to the Lectures meant by the word "Mind."
Here are the key sections that reference the Mind in the Fifth Lectures on Faith (emphasis added, links added):
2 … The Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power and fulness: Filling all in all—the Son being filled with the fulness of the Mind, glory and power, or, in other words, the Spirit, glory and power of the Father—possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom: sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father—a Mediator for man—being filled with the fulness of the Mind of the Father, or, in other words, the Spirit of the Father: which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments: and all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all: being filled with the fulness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.
"He" who fills all in all (referencing 1 Corinthians 15:28) would be the omnipresent Deity of Lecture 2, so the "samed mind" would be His Mind (the Holy Spirit of the Deity) or His Divine Mind or Nous shed forth filling all forms as Holy Nooma (i.e. Parley P. Pratt's Fluid Substance [Liquid Spirit-Matter) that literally fills both personages of the Father-Jehovah and Son (Jesus), and also deifies Christians who become as it says "even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" which "are one"; as in they (Christians) are of the same noetic mindset (Mind) of the Godhead, which Mind is delivered by the Spirit (Fluid Nooma) of the Father; as the Father's personage shares the same Mind/Spirit with the Son, which Mind is Noetic Nooma shed forth from the Deity as the Father of all lights ("God of all other gods[personages of nooma]" per D&C 121:32), whose Energy fills all in all.
In other words, Christians becoming the same Mind as the Godhead is synonymous with "growing up" noomatically with "the same wisdom, glory [star-like splendor], power [energy] and [noomatic] fulness" as the Godhead. For just as the Godhead of the two personages mentioned constitute (forms) the supreme governing power of Lecture 2, the Deity is expanding His divine family and growing up other personages of glory, wisdom and power. His glory (splendor) is like the Sun, and power implies energy, and thus as the Father of lights He is the God of all gods (the energia of all star-like gods). So the Divine Mind means simply a noomatic consciousness, as nooma is a filling fullness of divine substance, a luminous energy and a consciousness producing a wise and enlightened nous.
Again, the Spirit of the "personage" of the Father would be the omnipresent Deity of Lecture 2, the Father of lights. So the Mind would be the Deity's Spirit (Noetic Nooma) as the Wise Source of all lights (sons of God or lights/stars). In other words, it is His noomatic Energy (or Energies) as the Source-Essence of all, being all in all, in whom we live and move and have our being. In the Bible, wisdom is personified as a kind of divine knowledge or understanding, so it then says the Godhead possesses "all knowledge and glory." In other words, the Father and Son share all knowledge and wisdom. Then, while the Son has same Spirit as the Father, when it turns to Christians, it does not say they are the same Spirit as in the exact same duplicate personage like Jesus is. But it does say Christians possess "all knowledge and glory." This would infer that this divine Mind spoken of is in fact all divine wisdom or knowledge, or the mind of God, the noomatic Nous of the Deity, that is shed forth into our nous as Christians.
The Fifth Lecture then quotes Philippians 2:5 twice, and in the Greek the word mind here is phroneite meaning mindset as covered above from the book Thinking Orthodox by Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou. So let's now read the section with this in mind (emphasis added):
Question 8 … Philippians 2:5: Let this mind [mindset] be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ...
… Again, Philippians 2:5-6: Let this mind [mindset] be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
So the shared Mind is also the mindset of being a humble servant. Let's now look at another section related to the subject:
Question 13: Do the Father and the Son possess the same mind?
They do. John 5:30: I [Christ] can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.
John 6:38: For I [Christ] came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. John 10:30: I [Christ] and my Father are one.
The word will here according to Bible Hub means:
will θÎλημα (thelÄ“ma) Noun - ... Strong's 2307: An act of will, will; plur: wishes, desires. From the prolonged form of ethelo; a determination, i.e. choice or inclination.
This sounds very similar to having the same phronema (mindset or attitude) of the Father dwelling in his nous or heart. Next we have this (emphasis added):
Question 14: What is this mind?
The Holy Spirit. John 15:26: But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me. [Christ] Galatians 4:6: And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. …
Note how this verse in context would likely mean that the sequence would be inferring that the truthful Spirit (Noetic Mindset) proceeds first from the Father to the Son, and then the Spirit (Mindset) of the Son is sent into Christian hearts. For earlier it says the Holy Spirit is the Mind of the Father, and the Spirit of the Father is the Mind. So the Spirit of truth here implies this is the all-knowing noomatic divine wisdom and knowledge proceeding from the omniscient governing power (the Deity) in Lecture 2. Those Christians who possess the same Mind, are sons like Jesus who's nous was illuminated (see Mosiah 15:1-5 and D&C 93); as the Deity sends the Spirit (Nooma) of the Son (His enlightened mindset) into the heart (nous) of Christians. So that just as Christ does the will (thelēma) of the Father so that his nous was illuminated, according to Paul, so too Christians are to
... not [be] conformed to this world: but ... transformed by the renewing of your mind [nous], that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will [thelēma] of God (Romans 12:2 KJV, words in brackets added).
I interpret this as first Jesus received the omniscient phronema of His Father, transforming his nous, and then the resurrected Christ sends the Comforter, which is the Deity's noomatic energy shedding forth Jesus' divine nous and phronema (as a fluid infilling divine fullness).
The "gift of the Spirit" below is the shared Mind, i.e. the divine phronema (mindset) and illuminated nous:
Question 16: Does the the believer in Christ Jesus, through the gift of the Spirit, become one with the Father and the Son, as the Father and the Son are one?
They do. John 17:20-21: Neither pray I for these (the apostles) alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
For more on the "nous" see here, here and here.
Next, it is helpful to visually see the theology of Eastern Orthodoxy in order to see how it's similar to the LDS Lectures on Faith, so here is this diagram. This diagram can help us further understand the Mind mentioned in the Fifth Lecture on Faith: as the Mind mentioned in Lecture 5 represents the noetic fulness shed forth from the First Cause (the Deity of Lecture 2), which would be analgous to the emanation of the One in the diagram linked above. Thus, this shed forth filling Mind (of Lecture 5), as the indwelling radiant glory/splendor of God and His noetic mind (or consciousness), produces a noetic consciousness in the Christian; making him or her one with the Godhead (i.e. Father make them one as we are one). In other words, the noetic spirit (or all-wise nooma), or divine Mind, fills one's inner nous with stillness and empowerment. So that one's nous becomes one with the Divine Mind (that unites the Father and Son per Lecture 5); so that one partakes/participates in the divine nature of the Godhead through both noetic stillness and the illuminating splendor (glory) of God's light renewing one's mind (nous); while also experiencing the baptism of fire and becoming a new creation through nomatic gene therapy.
Note that Paul's language of a renewing of your mind in Greek is a renewing of your nous. So I think the word Mind in Lecture 5 is again referring to the Divine Nous, the noetic faculty of the luminous personages of fiery light and eternal stillness that constitute the Godhead. Thus D&C 101:16 states "... be still and know I am God." For example, Christ calms the chaotic sea, etc., and sends the "Comforter" to clearly comfort after ascending. This to me means that to have the mind (nous) of Christ, the Mind of the Godhead in Lecture 5, is to participate in a noetic consciousness (or Christ consciousness) through the Holy Spirit (Sacred Nooma): which Parley P. Pratt described as a liquid energy or fluid substance.
We find evidence of this analysis in in the Q&A section of Lecture, where the scriptures quoted confirms that the Divine Mind is both the fluid Nooma and Phronema of God, as expressed in scritpure quotes on how Christ does the will of the Father; as this language of the will is used in Mosiah 15: 1-5, where the will of the Son is swallowed up (i.e. filled up) by the will of the Father. This language of being swallowed up in the Book of Mormon matches other Book of Mormon verses on how the Holy Spirit is shed forth and is described as being poured into people as they are filled with the Spirit (Nooma). This fluid filling language matches the Fifth Lecture, where Christ is filled with the will or Mind (Mindset) of the Father through the Deity's fluid Nooma, and then Christians too are filled with the same fluid Nooma and are filled with the same Mind as the Father and Son.
The Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit:
Note that the Holy Spirit (or the Noetic Mind) is distinguished from the Holy Ghost, which I explain here. What this analysis so far shows is that what the Lectures are intending to do is provide the doctrines of salvation, not necessarily a perfect theology on the Godhead; which would be why they do not clarify the personhood of the Holy Ghost. The intentions of the Lectures as I see it, is that they are to provide the doctrines of salvation, that is they are about the way that a person becomes a holy being and is saved (exalted with a sparkling noomatic body) as covered in the Preface and Lecture 7. The point of the Fifth Lecture is to simply point out how one becomes deified through receiving the fullness of the Divine Mind which is a combination of the Divine Phronema and the noomatic gene therapy provided by Christ as the Unique Monogene. Because of this specific purpose, the Holy Spirit is only spoken of in terms of the noomatic Mind as a Noetic Energy of the Deity of Lecture 2. Because the Holy Ghost has always been a complicated subject among theologians, Lecture 5 does not go into detail regarding the Holy Ghost but only discusses the Holy Spirit in terms of the functionality of the Deity's Spirit (Sacred Nooma), which would be one of the actions of the Person of Holy Ghost and thus this would plausibly explain why the subject of the character or personhood of the Holy Ghost is not discussed or mentioned. As the focus is only on the functionality of God's indwelling/in-filling Nooma (Spirit) and Noetic Mind. Joseph Smith would later elaborate on the nature and personhood of the Holy Ghost in later sermons.
The Noomatic Phronema of the Godhead filling Christians
Furthermore, we know that the Spirit/Mind of the Father in Lecture 5 is referring to the Mindset (Phronema) of the Deity of Lecture 2, because the same Spirit/Mind of the Father is said to be in the Son and also in Christians; making Christians one in just as the Father and Son are one, that is of one Mindset (Phronema) by having the Mind (Nous) of Christ, as well as a fulness of the fluid energy of God's Spirit (Nooma). In the New Testament, Christ says to follow him, his example and Phronema, as His will is swallowed up (filled up) by the Phronema of the Deity. This would be why the Fifth Lecture quotes Philippines 2:5-6 two times to really emphasis that passage, for the KJV translation in the Fifth Lecture of "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" is explain in the EXB as "In your lives you must think and act like [have the same attitude as] Christ Jesus." So when the Fifth Lecture says Christians have the Spirit/Mind of the Godhead in them, this would mean they have Phronema of Christ, i.e. the Mindset of Christ, who chose to disempower himself of divine power to become a human servant to teach and exemplify the Mind (Phronema) of the Deity. This Mindset would be gifted them through the Holy Spirit (Sacred Nooma) which is why it says Christians have a fulness of the Spirit of the Father (same as Jesus), as they too are filled with the fluid noomatic energy of the Deity's Nooma which grows in them a new noomatic body and a new mentality simultaneously.
This is in fact what the Lectures and Faith are all about, God's Mind (Noetic Mindset) changing our mindset and inner heart, i.e. the Phronema of God transforming one's nous as the "natural man" is transformed into an enlightened-one (or holy one). Starting with the Preface the Lectures explain that they are are the doctrines or mindset of salvation which means according to the Seventh Lecture, that being saved is about abiding in the presence of the Deity by having a new sparkling star-like noomatic body and knowing the character and attributes ("mindset") of the Deity. Lecture 7 explains that Christ is the "prototype" of a saved being (i.e. an enlightened one), which means Christ is the exemplary Mindset (Phronema), who took the form of a servant and conquered death and cast out evil (destructive) mindsets, as Christ is the embodied Mind through which all saved (illuminated) human beings become exalted (illuminated or deified).
The Will of God in Moses 1: 39 (emphasis added): "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."
The Mind of Christians from Moses 7:18 (emphasis added): "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them."
Therefore, Christ does the will of the Father by having the Spirit (Mind) of the Father, by taking the form of a human servant and teaching and living out the Phronema of Zion: which is about how to be one mind and dwell in righteousness, just as Jesus and his Father dwell together in righteousness as one shared Mind.
The Seventh Lecture helps us see that all personages of glory (all celestial bodies) dwell in everlasting burnings before of the Sun-like radiant Deity (of Lecture 2); as in they are noetic noomatic beings of sparkling light and glory, originating from the Father of lights.
This is why one is to become enlightened, meaning to share in the noetic Mind of the Father and Son, i.e. a Consciousness of Stillness, and noomatic Fullness: meaning the full radiant splendor and power shed forth from the Deity and His strong arm and Strength of the Lord.
The Mind (Nous) of Christ in the Scriptures:
This site explains that:
... believers must have a renewed nous ... Everything that God wants to make known to us, He makes known through the intuition of the spirit. The spirit gives us God-consciousness; it enables us to have communication with God and sense God. ... What we usually call the heart, according to the Bible, is the conscience in man's spirit plus the mind in his soul. This is the heart. ...
... Matthew 12:34-35 says, "Offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man, out of his good treasure, brings forth good things, and the evil man, out of his evil treasure, brings forth evil things." The Lord Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, because the heart is the man himself. Therefore, a good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. ...
... Ezekiel 36:26 says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." ...
... Man has three faculties with which he gains knowledge: (1) with the body, it is the brain; (2) with the spirit, it is the intuition; (3) with the soul, it is the nous. ... Our nous falls between our brain and our intuition. ...
... The nous and salvation[:] What is it to be saved? It is to know God. "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ" (John 17:3). ...
... The importance of the renewing of the nous[:] When we were saved, our nous was enlightened. ...
This website states:
The following is an incomplete list of New Testament verses where nous occurs: Luke 24:25; Romans 1:28; 7:23; 11:34; 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16 (twice); 14:14; Ephesians 4:17,23; Philippians 4:7; Colossians 2:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:15; Revelation 13:18; 17:9.
The blueletterbible.org lexicon defines nous and lists every time nous is used in a New Testament. Bible Hub does the same. When one reads these verses it's clear that the divine nous (mind, mindset, knowledge, or understanding) is the consciousness of the Godhead, the attitude or mindset of God and all personages of glory. This divine consciousness originates in one's heart (core inner state), and is expressed outwardly. This would be why Jesus says that it's not what goes into you that makes you impure (or defiles) but what comes out of you that corrupts you, i.e. out of your breath formed into words is what defiles you, due to your inner "breath" (nooma) being corrupt resulting in bad fruit (negative/harmful behavior). In other words, by their fruit (an enacted nous) ye shall know them; for God says be still and know (understand/intuit) that He is God, the Deity, that grounds ALL; so to not know God is to not be still (not having a noetic peace that surpassess all understanding, i.e. is superior to the intellect) for only in the noetic state of our nous can we know God, as we otherwise percieve spritual phenomea intellectually as if in a blurry mirror. Lacking noetic peace and a renewed nous, one is often stuck in selfishness and intellectualizing, full of fear, insecurities, and inner turmoil; bubbling up like a boiling pot and spilling over spewing destructive communications, a fiery tongue setting emotions on fire ignited by Gehenna (symbolic of a destructive selfish mindset and harming others), as James puts it.
I continue my analysis of the Lectures on Faith and the meaning of the Mind in these posts:
The "Mind" of the Lectures on Faith (Part 2): Lecture 3,4, 6 and 7
The "Mind" of Lectures: Insights from Eastern Orthodox Hesychia
