Would we say that the belief in God is subjective?
Would we be able to prove that the Bible is inspired by God objectively? Or we cannot, and it is a belief we hold as Christians?
(Should have put this in General Apologetics, but oh well)
Thanks!
I would say that the belief in the inspiration of Scripture from a Catholic view is often an argument from authority. The authority of the Church for instance to determine which books. From a Protestant view it is often an argument from internal evidence like fulfillment of Scripture. (Both Catholics and Protestants do use both arguments. But, because the Protestants broke away from the Catholic Church they tend to shy away from arguments based on authority of the Church). You can’t simply just say we can prove the inspiration of the Bible objectively. But, it is not simply a subjective experience either. Rather there is evidence for it, but not so much evidence that even skeptics must believe. There are a combination of objective facts as well as subjective experiences and opinions that together forms ones belief. So there is both internal evidence and external evidence.
The inspiration of the Bible is not simply determined from one’s own subjective experience. (One may come to belief in it through subjective experience, but the claim of its inspiration is passed on externally to us. Its up to us to accept that claim or not.) Rather, for both Protestants and Catholics it is a historical tradition. The Bible was handed down to them from previous generations of Christians. Ultimately, from the Apostles. It was put together into a book form, but it is actually a collection of different books written by inspired authors.
How did the Church determine which books? For books like the gospels they had always been maintained as inspired. Belief that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Apostles and the Church is necessary for belief in the inspiration of the Scriptures. After all the Scriptures are nothing more than the Church’s own documents about herself and her Savior. Now the Church used these 2 criteria for determining which books of the NT would be part of the canon. They must have been written by an Apostle or a close associate, and they must be suitable for reading in the liturgical Mass. For books like the gospels it was easy to determine. But, there were some books that were debated, like for instance, the Shepherd of Hermas, which was in some bibles at the time, but was not ultimately accepted into the canon, but still considered good Christian reading.
Now, I am not going to go into all the internal evidences here. There are entire books written on this subject and I am no expert.
Here is an article on Catholic answers a about it, more from an apologetical point of view -
catholic.com/tracts/proving-inspiration
Here is the Catholic Encyclopedia on the subject
newadvent.org/cathen/08045a.htm
The mystery of faith is that it is a gift, a grace from God. People don’t come to belief through objectively proving the faith. If you could do that you wouldn’t need belief. Rather people come to belief first by trusting God, and then afterwards they will often seek to validate their belief to see if it is rational and holds up to scrutiny. Faith seeking understanding.
