Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 532

508

§ 88.

The

THE FACTORS OF INSPIRATION

capability of having consciousness,

mark

tinguishing

[Div. Ill

which is the disbeen lost, and

of the pneumatical, has not

man's openness to inspiration (^InspirationsfaliigHence, inspiration can work in the unconverted as well, as was the case with Balaam and Caiaphas, and though it generally occurs in connection with conversion, it is by no in this lies

keit^.

means dependent upon

The

this.

creation of

man

as a pneu-

matic being opens the possibility of communion between his spirit and the Spirit of God, by which the thoughts of God

To which

can be carried into his thoughts. the third place, that

man

is

is

created, not as one

to be added, in

who

God

always

is

the same, but as a self -developing being, and that

it

is

his

him and he in God, so that God shall be his temple (Rev. xxi. 22), and he a temple This, likewise, offers the means by of God (Eph. ii. 21). of the Spirit of God upon his spirit which the influence

end

(reXo'i) that

shall be in

can be supremely dominant. Care, however, should be taken against a confusion of terms, lest by an exchange with itself

as

escape from our grasp.

communion.

its

metonymy

Inspiration

is

inspiration

not the same

This, indeed, places the ego of

against the ego of God, and

covenant, but ever in such a

man

makes them wed or enter

way

that the ego of

man

over into

accepts

and lives in accordance with upon a duality. Neither may we confuse the ideas of inspiration and mystical union. This, indeed, rests upon the necessary and natural union between the head and members of one organism and the body of Christ, and is not grounded in the consciousness, but in the essentia. The mystical union makes us one plant

the communion, enters upon it,

— a unity, but one which

it,

rests

with Christ. Neither, again, may inspiration be confused with regeneration and with its consequent enlightening. To illustrate

:

inspiration

is

the use of the telephone, in order to is

the act which

order.

With such

communicate a thought, while regeneration repairs

the

telephone

when out

of

was the means to save him unto life eternal, and inspiration to make him of service to Every effort, therefore, to interpret the Church of God. a

man

as Isaiah, regeneration

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