For at least the last two centuries, the nature and role of the Bible has been debated in many quarters, including, but not limited to that of the Church. While the Church as a whole has historically affirmed the "divine inspiration" of Scripture, there is no official consensus among Christians as to what "inspiration" means. There are those in the Church who hold to the traditional view that the Holy Spirit not only "inspired" the writers of Scripture, but also guided the Church to include only those books which God intended the Church, both Jewish and Christian to have in its possession as the authoritative norm for faith and practice. Those who hold to this view, generally-speaking, do not bother with the issues of cultural influence on the writers of Scripture, variety of literary styles in the Bible, or even the issue of the different versions and translations of the Bible. Their position, in general is, "The Bible was inspired by God, end of story. Let's not bother with all this other razzle-dazzle." People who adhere and subscribe to this position are known as "literalists" who take the "quick to verse" approach to Scripture, i.e. quotation of the Bible while divorcing it from its cultural and historical context.
On the other hand, there are those, who influenced by the approach of "higher criticism (dealing with authorship, date, audience, reasons for writing, sources, styles of writing, possible redaction, etc.)," tend to believe that the Bible is a humanly generated book, reflecting the mindset and values of its authors, as well as well as the mindset and values of the people living at the time that the Bible was written. They tend to treat the Bible as just a good piece of literature with high and lofty morals. Very rarely, if ever, do they speak about "inspiration," and when they do, they are speaking about inspiration in the same vein that they would about other literary authors such as Cervantes, Milton, and Shakespeare. They do not, like the first group mentioned above, equate the word "inspiration" with inerrancy or infallibility. The issue of the "authority" of Scripture, to them is relevant exclusively to the context in which it was written with very little, if any, application or relevance for our time. This group is generally known as "liberal," because they supposedly take an "open-minded" approach to the origins and formation of the Bible and its application or lack thereof for the time that we are living in. Many of them even believe that the Bible was humanly concocted in its entirety, and that subsequently, has no hold on us today.
This writer (yours truly) believes in the divine inspiration of Scripture. By this I mean, that I believe that the initiative for the writing of Scripture is divine and not human. Subsequently, for me, the Bible has authority which is not inherent to itself, but rather a derivative authority, meaning that the authority lies with the one who inspired it.
Having said that, inspiration in my view does not cancel out in any way the reality of God using the language, the culture, the mindset, the values, and the personality of the biblical authors. Nor does inspiration vitiate the use of different literary styles including allegory, legend, metaphor, and myth. To me inspiration does not mean that we treat the Bible as if it were written in heaven and thrown down to earth, bypassing the process of historical mediation. Nor does inspiration cancel out the possibility that some of the biblical content is a reflection of borrowing from and building upon previous writings. Inspiration does not exclude the possibility that the writings of pre-Judaic and pre-Christian religions may have had some influence on the writers of Scripture. Since God is cosmic, the workings of God go over and beyond, and indeed, do transcend the confines and limitations of all faith communities with their dogmas and standards. Since God is sovereign, He/She works however, whenever, wherever, and He/She wants, and with whom He/She wants.
It is my hope and prayer that the readers of Scripture will discover the cosmic God who works in a variety of manners to reveal God-self. May our reading of Scripture help us to acknowledge both the divine inspiration as well as the human role with all its frailties and limitations.
In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.
Dr. Juan A. Carmona
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