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 INSPIRATION

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INSPIRATION

thority, nor merely lieeause they contain revela- tion without error, but beeause, written under the in- spiration of the Holy Ghoft. they have God for their author, and have been transmitted to the Church as such." (Concil. Vatic, Sess. Ill, const, dogra. de Fide, cap. ii, in Denz., 17S7.) (b) "The Holy Ghost Himself, by His supernatural power, stirred up and impelled the Biblical writers to write, and assisted them while writing in such a manner that they con- ceived in their minds exactly, and determined to commit to writing faithfvilly, and render in exact language, with infallible truth, all that God com- manded and notliing else; without that, God would not be the author of Scripture in its entirety " (En- cycl. "Provid. Deus", in Denz., 1952).

B. Catholic Vietr. — Inspiration can be considered in God, who produces it ; in man, who is its object ; and in the text, which is its term. (1) In God in- spiration is one of those actions which are ad extra, as theologians say; and thus it is common to the three Divine Persons. However, it is attributed by appro- priation to the Holy Ghost. It is not one of those graces which have for their immediate and essential object the sanctification of the man who receives them, but one of those called antonomastically charismata, or gratis datcc, because they are given primarily for the good of others. Besides, inspiration has this in common with every actual grace, that it is a transitory participation of the Divine power; the inspired writer finding himself invested with it only at the very moment of writing or when thinking about writing.

(2) Considered in the man on whom is bestowed this favour, inspiration affects the will, the intelli- gence, and all the executive faculties of the writer, (a) Without an impulsion given to the will of the writer, it cannot be conceived how God could still remain the principal cause of Scripture, for, in that case, the man would have taken the initiative. Besides that, the text of St. Peter is peremptorj': "For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the laoly men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost" (it Pet., i, 21). The context shows that there is question of all Scripture, which is a prophecy in the broad sense of the word (irSo-o irpo^iyreia ypat(>Tjs). According to the Encyclical "Pro v. Deus", "God stirred up and impelled the sacred writers to determine to write all that God meant them to write" (Denz., 1952). Theologians discuss the question whether, in order to impart this motion, God moves the will of the writer directly or decides it by proposing motives of an intellectual order. At any rate, everybody admits that the Holy Ghost can arouse or simply utilize external influences capable of acting on the will of the sacred writer. According to an ancient tradition, St. Mark and St. John wrote their Gospels at the instance of the faithful.

What becomes of human liberty under the in- fluence of Divine inspiration? In principle, it is agreed that the Inspirer can take away from man the power of refusal. In point of fact, it is commonly admitted that the Inspirer, Who does not lack means of obtaining our consent, h:is respected the freedom of His instruments. .\n inspiration which is not accompanied by a revelation, which is adapted to the normal play of the faculties of the human soul, which can determine the will of the inspired writer by motives of a human order, does not neces.sarily sup- pose tliat he who is its object is himself conscious of it. If the prophets and the author of the Apocalypse know and say that their pen is guided by the Spirit of God, other Biblical authors seem rather to have been led by "some mysterious influence who.se origin was either unknown or not clearly discerned by them " (St. Aug., " De Gen. ad lift.", II,"xvii, :57; St. Thomas, II-II, Q. clxxi, a. 5; Q. clxxiii, a. 4). However, most

theologians admit that ordinarily the writer was con- .scious of his own inspiration. From what we have just said it follows that inspiration does not neces- sarily imply ecstasy, as Philo and, later, the Montan- ists "thought. It is true that some of the orthodox apologists of the second century (Athenagoras, The- ophilus of Antioch, St. Justin) have, in the description which they give of Biblical inspiration, been some- what influenced by the ideas of divination then current amongst the pagans. They are too prone to represent the Biblical writer as a purely passive intermediary, something after the style of the Pythia. Neverthe- less, they did not make him out to be an energumen for all that. The Divine intervention, if one is con- scious of it, can certainly fill the human soul with a certain awe; but it does not throw it into a state of delirium.

(b) To induce a person to write is not to take on oneself the responsibility of that writing, more espe- cially it is not to become the author of that writing. If God can claim the Scripture as His own word, it is because He has lirought even the intellect of the inspired writer under His command. However, we must not represent the Inspirer as putting a ready- made book in the mind of the inspired person. Nor has He necessarily to reveal the contents of the work to be produced. No matter where the knowledge of the writer on this point comes from, whether it be acquired naturally or due to Divine revelation, it is something preliminary to inspiration. For inspiration has not essentially for its object to teach something new to the sacred writer, but to render him capable of writing with Divine authority. Thus the author of the Acts of the Apostles narrates events in which he liimself took [lart, or which were related to him. It is highly probable that most of the sayings of the Book of Proverbs were familiar to the sages of the East, before being set down in an in- spired writing. God, inasmuch as He is the principal cause, when He inspires a writer, subordinates all that writer's cognitive faculties so as to make him accom- plish the different actions which would be naturally gone through by a man who, first of all, has the design of composing a book, then gets together his materials, subjects them to a critical examination, arranges them, makes them enter into his plan, and finally brands them with the mark of his personality — i. e. his own peculiar style. The grace of inspiration does not exempt the writer from personal effort, nor does it insure the perfection of his work from an artistic point of view. The author of the Second Book of Machabees and St. Luke tell the reader of the pains they took to document their work (II Mach., ii, 24-33; Luke, i, 1—4). The imperfections of the work are to be attributed to the mstrument. God can, of course, prepare this instrument beforehand, but, at the time of using it, He does not ordinarily make any change in its conditions. When the Creator applies His power to the faculties of a creature outside of the ordinary way. He does so in a manner in keeping w'ith the natural activity of these faculties. Now-, in all languages recourse is had to the com- parison of light to explain the nature of the human intelligence. That is why St. Thomas (II-II, Q. clxxi, a. 2; Q. clxxiv, a. 2, ad Sum) gives the name of light or itluminatiim to the intellectual motion com- municated by God to the sacred writer. After him, then, we may say that this motion is a peculiar super- natural participation of the Divine light, in virtue of which the writer conceives exactly the work that the Holy Ghost wants him to write. Thanks to this help given to his intellect, the inspired writer judges, with a certitude of Divine order, not only of the opportuneness of the book to be written, but also of the truth of the details and of the whole. However, all theologians do not analyse exactly in the same manner the influence of thislight of inspiratioc,