31 March 2017

The Cardionomographic Work of the Spirit

I have an article that has recently been published in the Westminster Theological Journal, entitled “The Cardionomographic Work of the Spirit in the Old Testament.” This article introduces the word cardionomography to the world of theological scholarship, and hopefully one day it might even find its way into the standard dictionaries of the English language ... perhaps.

For those unfamiliar with the Greek vocabulary that makes up the components of this word, cardio denotes heart, nomo stands for law, and graphy indicates writing. The term cardionomography simply denotes, therefore, the writing of the law on the heart. This word was coined during the process of preparing lectures on Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and was first used in a public forum during my lectures on Romans at Christ College in Sydney, Australia, all the way back in early 2004.

Cardionomography is a lengthy word, but in my experience it has proven to be eminently useful in conveying in a succinct way the concept of the Holy Spirit’s work of writing the law on the hearts of God’s people, which is itself a very important concept in understanding the history of salvation as recorded in the Bible, and in particular, the relationship of the old and new covenants.

For those interested in reading the article, the full reference is “The Cardionomographic Work of the Spirit in the Old Testament,” Westminster Theological Journal 79 (2017): 77–95.