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Biblical Inspiration and the Paraclete

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Geoffrey Turner
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Extract

Never reluctant to provoke their readers, the Hanson brothers declare roundly that,

The ancient doctrine of the inspiration and the inerrancy of the Bible not only is impossible for intelligent people today, but represents a deviation in Christian doctrine, whatever salutary uses may have been made of it in the past by the Holy Spirit, who often turns human errors to good ends.

This vapid dismissal of an ancient doctrine is discordant with current Roman Catholic tradition represented by the Vatican Council’s document Dei Verbum, which maintains that ‘the books of Holy Scripture were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit’. So what has led the Hansons, in the name of intelligent people of the present day, to abandon the inspiration of scripture as an untenable belief? One reason is that the Hansons equate inspiration with inerrancy, for they allege that inerrancy has been the only practical outcome of the tradition of biblical inspiration, and certainly it is the case that inerrancy was made to bear much weight in Roman Catholic tradition in the late nineteenth century and, during the early part of this century, in the anti-modernist campaign.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 65 , Issue 772 , October 1984 , pp. 420 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 A.T. & R.P.C. Hanson, Reasonable Belief: A Survey of the Christian Faith, Oxford 1980, p.42.

2 Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus; Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus; Pius XII, Humani Generis.

3 P. Benoit, Inspiration and the Bible, London 1965, p.15; K. Rahner ‘Inspiration in the Bible’ in Studies in Modern Theology, London 1965, p.13.

4 R.A.L. Mackenzie, ‘Some Problems in the Field of Inspiration’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 20, 1958, pp.1-8.

5 A. Rohling, ‘Die Inspiration der Bibel und ihre Bedeutung für die freie Forschung’, Natur und Offenbarung, 1972.

6 F. Lenormant, Les origines de l'histoire d'après la Bible et les traditions des peuples orientaux, 1880-2; K. Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith, London 1978.

7 N. Lohfink, ‘The Inerrancy of Scripture’, The Christian Meaning of the Old Testament, Milwaukee 1968.

8 O. Betz, Der Paraklet, Leiden 1963.

9 R.E. Brown, ‘The Paraclete in the Fourth Gospel’, New Testament Studies, 13.2, January, 1967, p.128.