Instrumentality (theology)
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Instrumentality is a theological theory that falls under the broader category of the prophetic model of biblical inspiration.[1] Those who espouse the prophetic model consider the authors of all the books of the bible to have been inspired in the same way prophets have been inspired by God to preach. Although, as Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange notes, a prophet can act based on direct revelation from God or from inspiration.[2]
The latter is what is relevant when it comes to biblical interpretation. This model of biblical inspiration played a dominant role in the Early Church and was fully and systematically explained by medieval theologians like Thomas Aquinas. Thomas discusses prophesy in Questions 171-174 of the Second Part of the Second Part of the Summa Theologica. Thomas uses earlier theologians, namely Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory the Great, to support his argument. Jewish theologians such as Maimonides also defended this model.
Instrumentality is the theory that through divine inspiration the scripture has two authors, God and the human author, "Thus Scripture has two authors, one divine and principal, the other human and instrumental."[3] It is through instrumentality that God has chosen specific writers to compose his message in the form of scripture. God uses man as an instrument to convey his word, but he allows these writers to maintain their own literary style. Therefore, we see that both God, through the working of the Holy Spirit, and the human writer, which he chooses to be his instrument, both are considered authors of the scripture>. "And it this peculiar and singular power of Holy Scripture, arising from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which gives authority to the sacred orator, fill him with apostolic liberty of speech, and communicates force and power to his eloquence."[4] Thus this divine inspiration both inspired the words of the author on matter of faith and also inspires the author into the action of writing, "Inspiration, then, to repeat, is a divine causality, physical and supernatural, which elevates and moves the human writer in such fashion that he writes, for the benefit of the Church, all that God wills and in the way God wills."[3] Instrumentality then explains all of the different styles, audiences, locations and recollections seen throughout scripture. This is why inconsequential mistakes can be made by the human authors. It is the only in matters of faith that the human instrument is infallible, "And since it is in judgment that truth or falsity resides, the infused judgment of the inspired writer is divinely and infallibly certain."[3]