Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 530

606

THE FACTORS OF INSPIRATION

§ 83.

the prophets, and

still

[Div. Ill

another with the Cliokma, Avith Christ

and with the apostles, so that each of these kinds of inspiraBut these lyrical, protion must separately be considered. chokmatic inspirations, etc., have something in common, and this must first be explained. Inspiration rests upon the antithesis between the Spirit of God and the spirit of man, and indicates that the Spirit of God enlists into His service the spirit of man, disposes of it, and uses it as His conscious or unconscious organ. In this phetical,

the

human

spirit is either

portion as

it

reveal by

it.

some seem

more

active or passive, in pro-

has greater or lesser affinity to what

God

If that affinity is entire, as is the

ajDostolic epistles, the action of the

human

will

case in

spirit will

and inspiration will scarcely be observed while, on the other hand, where this affinity is very limited, as is the case with the most of Ezekiel's visions, the human spirit appears as little more than a phonograph, which serves to catch the action of the Spirit of God. This inspiration lies grounded in the nature of our human spirit. This is no isolated potency, but one that is pervasive. Our spirit can be affected by other spirits, and this can be done in two ways either by entering in by the peripher}^ in order thence to approach the centrum of our spirit or by to be the sole factor, ;

:

;

entering into that centrum, in order thence to extend

/

to the periphery.

A

itself

great orator approaches his hearers in

the periphery of their consciousness, and thence penetrates to the roots of their sense of self

;

while, on the other hand,

the biologist or hypnotizer finds a means in the nervous

system by which to penetrate at once to the centrum of the spirit, and is able from thence to reach the periphery in such a way that the mesmerized subjects think and speak as he wills. Such a central inworking upon the human spirit goes out from the Spirit of God, and by inversion from Satan. Our spirit in our innermost being is not independent, but dependent, and, even without inspiration (taken in its narrower sense of means of revelation as Theopneustic), workings and inspirations from the spiritual world go out to the centrum of the life of our soul, which

human

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