| What does the term inspire mean? | The term ‘inspire’ means ‘to breathe’ |
| How is the term inspired supported in scripture? | II Timothy 3:16 says that the scriptures have been ‘God-breathed’ |
| What does scripture being 'God-breathed' mean for Christians? | Christians view the Bible as the Word of God. Some Christians take an ‘objective’ view of inspiration |
| What does scripture being 'God-breathed' mean for more extreme Christians? | at the extreme end of this is the view that humans played only a
passive role and that God used plenary (absolute), verbal means to inspire the Bible. |
| How do more liberal Christians interpret scripture being 'God-breathed'? | Some Christians take a ‘subjective’ view; at the extreme end of this is the view that the Bible is not directly inspired but that human beings were inspired by witnessing meaningful events |
| How do more subjective Christians see God's work in Scripture? | they believe that God worked through the personalities of the authors in conveying her/his message. In this sense, God is a ‘producer’. |
| What is accommodation? | refers to ‘making provision’ for a person |
| What did John Calvin argue God was doing through the bible? | he believed that God, who is beyond language, has accommodated our
relatively limited minds through the Bible |
| What analogy did Calvin use to demonstrate his point? | a nurse making ‘baby talk’ to an infant; God is the nurse and the Bible is this ‘baby talk’. God adapts his truth – though there is no error. |
| How have recent theologians used Calvins concept of accommodation? | to defend the Bible as God’s word despite errors of science
and history. God worked through the incorrect scientific assumptions of the writers to convey morality and spirituality |
| Key quote from the Catholic Cathechism? | “In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness, God speaks to them in human words.” |
| Key quote by Dawkins about the bible's order? | "... the bible is ... a chaotically cobbled - together anthology of disjointed documents" |
