Quick Facts
The Apostle Paul is the book’s chief theological guide—a historical teacher whose life and letters shape the blueprint of the argument in Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen. First invoked in Chapter 1 through his command to “take every thought captive,” Paul provides the scriptural structure and practical strategies the book builds on.
- Role in the book: Primary spiritual mentor and source of doctrine about thought-life and mental habits
- First major emphasis: Chapter 1’s challenge to “take every thought captive”
- Key texts drawn from: Romans, Philippians, and 2 Corinthians
- Central focus: Single-minded devotion to Jesus
- Themes connected: Transformation Through Renewing the Mind; Spiritual Warfare for the Mind
- Physical description: None—Allen emphasizes his mind, convictions, and spiritual resilience
Who He Is
Paul isn’t a character inside Allen’s personal narrative so much as the book’s anchor. His dramatic conversion from zealous persecutor to devoted apostle becomes Allen’s masterclass in how a transformed mind fuels a transformed life (Chapter 4). His letters supply both diagnosis and prescription: thoughts become battlegrounds; beliefs shape behavior; hope grows when the mind is re-trained on Christ. Romans provides the theological foundation, 2 Corinthians the warfare language, and Philippians the lived example of joy and gratitude under pressure.
Personality & Traits
Allen’s portrait of Paul emerges through his own words: a blend of fierce authority and tender self-awareness. He commands, comforts, confesses, and coaches—often from prison—turning abstract doctrine into battle-tested practice.
- Bold and authoritative: The book opens with Paul’s bracing mandate to “take every thought captive” (Chapter 1), treating his teaching not as suggestion but as a God-backed strategy for mental freedom.
- Resilient in suffering: Allen notes that Philippians—the letter pulsing with joy and gratitude—was written in chains (Chapters 10, 13), showing that Paul’s inner life isn’t ruled by circumstances.
- Humble: Quoting Philippians (Chapter 12), Allen highlights Paul’s dismissal of status and achievement as “rubbish,” a deliberate un-centering of self that reorients the mind toward Christ.
- Single-minded: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Chapter 5) distills his purpose. For Allen, that focus is the antidote to distraction, anxiety, and spiraling thoughts.
- Vulnerable and relatable: In Romans (Chapter 5), Paul admits the inner war with sin, proving that even spiritual heavyweights battle unruly thoughts—and that honesty is a path to healing.
Character Journey
Paul’s arc in the book centers on a before-and-after mind. On the Damascus road (Chapter 4), “something like scales” falls from his eyes: the physical sign of an interior reorientation. Allen reframes this conversion as the model of Transformation Through Renewing the Mind—not merely a past miracle but a present pattern available to readers. From that turning point, Paul’s life becomes a study in disciplined thinking: he renounces self-importance, learns contentment in prison, and trains his mind to rejoice and give thanks. His letters trace the journey from self-driven zeal to Christ-shaped clarity.
Key Relationships
- Jesus Christ: Paul’s bond with Jesus is total, defining his aims, identity, and emotional life. “To live is Christ” is not a slogan but a mindset he adopts and prescribes, and Allen presents his teaching as the practical outworking of Christ’s own self-emptying posture.
- The Enemy / Satan: Paul names the real adversary and the true arena of conflict. By insisting “we are not waging war according to the flesh” (Chapter 5), he reframes mental health struggles as part of Spiritual Warfare for the Mind, where arguments and lies—not people—are the targets.
- Jennie Allen: Paul functions as Allen’s overseer at a distance; she builds her framework around his commands and consolations. His epistles give her both authority and hope, translating first-century counsel into modern cognitive and spiritual practice.
Defining Moments
Paul’s life offers a sequence of turning points that become strategies for readers.
- The command to take thoughts captive (Chapter 1; 2 Corinthians 10:5)
- Why it matters: It reframes intrusive thoughts as opponents to arrest, giving readers agency and a Christ-centered filter for their mental life.
- Conversion on the road to Damascus (Chapter 4)
- Why it matters: The “scales” image dramatizes how spiritual sight changes cognition and conduct, embodying the book’s promise that renewal begins in the mind.
- Writing from prison (Chapters 10, 13; Philippians)
- Why it matters: Joy and gratitude from a cell prove that mindset—not circumstance—drives peace, offering a tested pathway out of victimhood.
Essential Quotes
“Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
—ROMANS 12:2 (Title Page)
This is the thesis of the book in a single line: change your thinking, change your life. For Allen, Paul’s imperative isn’t motivational fluff but a Spirit-empowered process that rewires perception, desire, and practice.
“The apostle Paul understood the war that takes place in our thoughts, how our circumstances and imaginations can become weapons that undermine our faith and hope. The Bible records his bold declaration that we are to ‘take every thought captive to obey Christ.’”
(Chapter 1)
Allen positions Paul as both diagnostician and commander. The quote bridges everyday mental spirals and Paul’s wartime strategy, validating the inner struggle and pointing to a decisive, practical response.
“Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ...”
(Chapter 5)
Here Paul names the battlefield (ideas), the enemy (lies), and the arsenal (divine power). Allen leverages this passage to argue that mental strongholds are dismantled not by willpower alone but by truth applied with Spirit-enabled discipline.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
(Chapter 10)
This is Paul’s thought diet. Instead of merely rejecting toxic patterns, he prescribes a positive, repeatable focus that trains the mind toward joy, gratitude, and peace—even in confinement.
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant... he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
(Chapter 12)
Paul makes mindset ethical and communal. Allen highlights this passage to show that humility is not an emotion but a cognitive posture—choosing a Christlike frame that directs action, service, and endurance.