Lane Craig Inspiration and the Freewill Defense Revisited

The Christian Church has traditionally held that the inspiration of Holy Scripture is verbal, plenary, and confluent. But such an affirmation may seem to be incoherent. For if Scripture is the product of both divine and human free agency, then it seems impossible that God should have sufficient control of the various authors of Scripture so as to produce a Word that is verbally and plenarily his. A Molinist theory of divine middle knowledge can help us to break this deadlock and craft a doctrine of inspiration that is both orthodox and coherent. 24. For applications of middle knowledge to such issues as Christian exclusivism, divine sovereignty and human freedom, perseverance of the saints, infallibility, and creation/evolution see William Lane Craig, '"No Other Name": A Middle Knowledge Perspective on the Exclusivity of Salvation through Christ,' Faith and Philosophy 6 (1989), 172-188; idem, 'Middle Knowledge: a Calvinist-Arminian Rapprochement ?' in The Grace of God, the Will of M{ln, ed. C. Pinnock (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 1989), 141-164; idem, '"Lest Anyone Should Fall": a Middle Knowledge Perspective on Perseverance and Apostolic Warnings,' International Journalfor Philosophy of Religion 29 (1991): 65-74; Thomas P. Flint, 'Middle Knowledge and the Doctrine ofInfallibility,' Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 5: Philosophy of Religion, ed.]. E. Tomberlin (Atascadero, Calif.: Ridgeway Publishing, 1991), 373-393; Del Ratzch, 'Design, Chance, and Theistic Evolution,' in Mere Creation (Downer's Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity, 1998),289-312. 25. See Alvin Plantinga, 'Reply to Robert Adams,' in Alvin Plantinga, 372-382; Jonathan L. Kvanvig, The Possibility of an All-Knowing ('.od (New York: St. Martin's, 1986), 121-148; Alfred]. Freddoso, 'Introduction,' in On Divine Foreknowledge, 6281; Edward R. Wierenga, The Nature of God: an Inquiry into Divine Attributes, Cornell Studies in the Philosophy of Religion (Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1989), 116-165; William Lane Craig, Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom: The Coherence of Theism I: Omniscience, Studies in Intellectual History 19 (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.]. Brill, 1990), 237-278; Thomas Flint, Providence, Corn ell Studies in the Philosophy of Religion (Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1998); WiIliam Lane Craig, 'Middle Knowledge, Truth-Makers, and the Grounding Objection,' Faith and Philosophy (forthcoming). A useful anthology of articles on middle knowledge is William Hasker, David Basinger, and Eef Dekker, eds., Middle Knowledge: Theory and Applications, Contributions to Philosophical Theology 4 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2000).