1. Which of these is inspired and why?
Inspiration
Which of these is inspired and why?
Define inspiration

2. in-spire = to breathe in or on
theopneustos = God breathed
2 Tim 3:16
Defining inspiration
being inspired is a sense of acting, thinking or feeling over and above your “norm”.
you have a brilliant idea, a flash of insight, a moment of unique creativity. The “muse”.
You may be externally or internally moved. Can you think of examples?
How does divine inspiration work, in the Christian tradition?
a person is particularly wise and has a unique ability to express truths
a person is carried by the Holy Spirit to see more clearly and sharply spiritual truths they already had some insight about, using their own expressive ability
a person is carried by the Holy Spirit to see – or write? - spiritual truths they could not have otherwise known or expressed
God speaks directly to a person, who writes what they hear
What then is the role of the person?
Is the person completely passive?
Is any of the writing their own contribution?
If so, is it inerrant? (guaranteed to be correct?)
For Christians, the Bible is inspired because it shows the work of God’s spirit shaping the author’s understanding and way of expressing it.

3. Objective
God imparts his knowledge directly and objectively.
eg humans are just passive copyists, writing down exact dictation. The words are purely God’s.
Mixed model
God imparts insights in alongside the natural insights and gifts of the author
eg clarifying insight or giving certainty to their own understanding.
Subjective
The authors use their own unique natural gifts and insights to express their own experience and understanding
eg they recall their own understanding of historical events, or of who Jesus was. God does not move them in any special or additional way.
If you think about prophets speaking the “word of God”, where on this continuum do you think they were?
What about Moses, giving the Law to Israel?
The wisdom writers, teaching proverbs?

4. The Bible view: What can you deduce from these two quotes about inspiration?
Direct quotes about inspiration
Peter 1:21  For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training us in doing what is right.
Bible texts can be found to support both views – the subjective and the objective.
eg Ezekiel “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He asked me…”
eg Luke 1 “I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
Other evidence
The books of the Bible all have a very different feel about them. They have different styles of writing. This suggests that human authors were able to write according to their own personal style.
On your sheet, add in what the Bible texts suggest about inspiration.

5. Early Church Medieval Church Modern Church
Read about what other theologians across different periods believed about inspiration.
Write them in your table.
Comment if they support an objective or a subjective view of inspiration.
**What is your conclusion?
Early Church
Medieval Church
Modern Church

6. John Calvin’s Doctrine of Accommodation
What are some difficult questions that small children can ask?
How do you respond?
Are you telling the truth accurately?
What understanding of inspiration does Calvin’s Doctrine of Accomodation imply?
if ‘inaccuracies’ in the Bible, are only simplifications for the sake of better communicating theological truths, are these simplifications are the result of
being written by human authors who were active producers, but limited by their own cultural and personal understanding in writing.
God communicating objectively, but in a limited, simplified way?
Calvin developed his “Doctrine of Accommodation” to try and explain why some parts of the Bible seem to be scientifically inaccurate, or why they may reflect the culture at the time.
God speaks to us in a way that we can easily understand, in a simplified way, adapting his truth to our point of view & level of understanding.

7. Calvin’s view of inspiration
Summarise Calvin’s view of inspiration.
Calvin’s view of inspiration
“The full authority which [the scriptures] ought to possess…is only recognised, if they are believed to have come from heaven, as directly as if God had been heard giving utterance to them”. (Institutes 1.VII.1)
Calvin admits that the writers of Scripture were not always accurate on certain details – and this means that the Holy Spirit, by whom they wrote, was not always accurate on such matters.
The Bible is literature and the Holy Spirit was pleased to employ the literary forms of the original human writers in the milieu in which they wrote.

8. Modern views of inspiration: how are they different?
Enlightenment C18th -
Schleiermacher
protestant
age of rationalism, science & industrial revolution. Optimism in human capacity for progress.
emphasised human creative role in inspiration & as an expression of human experiences of the divine
Modern Christian Fundamentalists
protestant. Take Calvin’s view of divine authorship further.
“Plenary Verbal Inspiration”: all scripture is fully and equally true, as equally inspired by God – and God cannot be in error. Not up to humans to “judge” the Bible on how authoritative different parts may be.
Karl Barth C20th
protestant
while Calvin emphasised that God can only be known through the “spectacles” of Scripture, with the faith of the Holy Spirit (scripture + Spirit), Barth said that only Jesus is the Word of God – preaching is an opportunity for people to be moved by the Holy Spirit to meet the Person of Jesus, speaking through the Word. The text itself does not have any special quality of being “inspired” – its inspiration only arises from the interaction of the believer with the text (logos + Spirit).
Modern Social Theories
biblical books are authored by schools of writers – it is a collective enterprise, of a whole community, reflecting together.

9. Modern views of inspiration: problems?
Enlightenment C18th -
Schleiermacher – inspiration = human creativity & expression
Modern Christian Fundamentalists
“Plenary Verbal Inspiration”: all scripture is fully and equally true
Karl Barth
inspiration is not a quality of the text itself, but arises from interaction of believer & text as logos
Modern Social Theories of Authorship
inspiration is not a quality of an individual writer, but of a whole reflective community, with multiple re-writes and edits.
PROBLEM:
scripture is understood in an absolute, propositional way (T or F) – poetic statements equally factually true to historical/ legal ones. A category mistake: doesn’t respect that different styles of writing communicating truth in different, and non-propositional ways
conflict with science: deny evolution.
PROBLEM: if no single inspired author, but range of different viewpoints, more or less insightful – bible a human undertaking, skewed by human bias?
PROBLEM: so not just the Bible, but any text which is suitably creative and expressive of human spiritual experiences can be “inspired”?
PROBLEM: biblical statements are not authoritative as stand-alone pronouncements – only in the context of an individual’s faith relationship. The Bible cannot make objective moral claims?

10. Complete your table on Modern views of inspiration
How is the Catholic View different from the Reformed (Protestant)?
Evaluate:
what theory of inspiration has the most biblical support?
has the most practical sense?

11. What kind of inspiration is the video advocating? Do you agree?
Verbal plenary inspiration
Doctrine of accommodation
Subjective inspiration
Mixed model

12. Exam Question
To what extent is the Bible the inspired word of God?