Does Kardia encompass Dianoia?

[Avin]

My priest recently preached a sermon on Romans 8, centered around "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." He preached that it's not with our mind that we are saved, but contrasted that with our heart, which he used as a metaphor for the emotions and the will. He went on to cite Pascal and Kierkegaard, especially Pascal's "The Heart has reason that reason doesn't know" to show that the "reason" of the heart is different from the "reason" of the mind.

I disagreed with him and emailed him afterwards to indicate that I thought the distinction he was making between "heart" and "mind" was artificial and unwarranted by not only that text but anywhere in the Bible. I cited verses where the Hebrew word "leb" was translated as "mind" instead of "heart" to support my claim, and also several verses in the old testament that seemed to demonstrate the heart having thoughts.

We had a discussion regarding that last night, and he brought up a number of issues and arguments to support his understanding, which I am seriously considering, even though I still think he is mistaken. I would like to be able to cite authoritative references other than just articles on random websites both for my own reading and to make my case, and I don't personally have access to a significant theological library though. Could others here point me towards works that I might be able to access or reference that are broadly available? Are there any significant writings by prominent theologians, either now or throughout Christian history, that deal with the issues of Heart and Mind and what the words mean then and now?

One of his counter-arguments to the scriptures I cited were that they were all from the Old Testament Hebrew, and while it may well be that this was the Hebrew understanding of the word Heart, the passage in Romans was written in Greek so if God saw fit to use the Greek language to convey the scriptural truths in Romans then we need to be aware of the Greek cultural understanding which informed that use of the word Heart. He argued that the New Testament seemed to make distinctions between the ways it used the word Dianoia and the word Kardia, therefore they were separate concepts that were distinct from each other, and that Romans 10 was specifically pointing to the Heart whereas a passage such as Romans 12 spoke of the renewal of the "mind" to contrast the Heart as something that is transformed in the act of an individual's salvation, whereas the Mind is something that needs to be continually transformed as the new believer grows in Christ. To defend this he pointed to Ezekiel 36, that God gives us a new heart whole.

I think this is a strong argument but I can't shake the idea that he is clinging to this because of his own conversion story and not because the text warrants it - he responded to an altar call in a Baptist church as a child without having any idea what he was doing, and although he did not live out his faith for many years after that, he firmly believes now that God had "valued" that commitment of what he describes as being purely in his Heart and not at all in his Head (because he was not really cognitively aware of what he was doing at such a young age) to lead him from that time on.

I still think that the concept of Dianoia can be contained within the concept of Kardia, because the concept of Kardia seems to represent the whole person, whereas Dianoia might merely be one aspect of the person. But I am having a tough time reconciling this with the aforementioned argument about the new Heart promised by God. Do others here agree with either of our positions, or are there other thoughts out there? Basically, what is the relation of the concept of Kardia to the concept of Dianoia?

It would be really helpful just to see other studies on the words in question though, since apparently just my browsing through a lexicon didn't seem like enough.

[Avin]

Oh right, lest it put my priest in a bad light, I also wanted to note that part of his disagreement was due to the fact that he was concerned I was advocating that we could or should "reason" our way to salvation, which I fiercely denied. To me Romans 10:9 couldn't be viewed as an "if-then" statement of "do this in order to be saved", so I was not trying to argue that it is our responsibility as fallen humans to bring our own hearts to belief.

[Panayioti]

Oh right, lest it put my priest in a bad light, I also wanted to note that part of his disagreement was due to the fact that he was concerned I was advocating that we could or should "reason" our way to salvation, which I fiercely denied. To me Romans 10:9 couldn't be viewed as an "if-then" statement of "do this in order to be saved", so I was not trying to argue that it is our responsibility as fallen humans to bring our own hearts to belief.

I strongly suggest reading the Septuagint as most of the Old Testament quotations in the New Testament come from the Septuagint, and even those quotations that are from the Hebrew are laced with a Septuagint Greek flavor. Further, please remember that Hellenism had penetrated very deeply into middle-eastern culture to the point that there was a merger between the two that's called "Hellenistic."

In Greek Culture there is a distinct separation between Karthia, Diaonia and Nous or Heart, Intelligence and mind. The change starts in the Heart (Karthia) with causes a Metonia (Complete change of thinking/repentance) which forwever transforms a Christian's mind (nous). thus, all transformation/Salvation is from the inside out. This is the understanding that I believe is within the pages of the NT.


God Bless

Peter

[Avin]

In Greek Culture there is a distinct separation between Karthia, Diaonia and Nous or Heart, Intelligence and mind. The change starts in the Heart (Karthia) with causes a Metonia (Complete change of thinking/repentance) which forwever transforms a Christian's mind (nous). thus, all transformation/Salvation is from the inside out. This is the understanding that I believe is within the pages of the NT.

Thanks for the response, but can you point me to some sources that support that understanding?

[brainout]

Thanks for the response, but can you point me to some sources that support that understanding?

See how the Lord changes the First Commandment in Matt22:37. That would support your conclusion, since "heart" in Bible refers to BELIEVING, universally. So you can't love without believing, and you can't love without your THINKING (dianoia, which the Lord uses in Matt22:27).