Is Poetry Divinely Inspired?

ABSTRACTS: Is poetry made by humans or received from God—or does the question itself present a false dilemma? This essay (originally delivered as a lecture) explores the claim that human creativity is less a triumph of artisanal skill than a gratuitous event of grace. Drawing on the ancient Greek distinction between ποίησις ( poíēsis ) and τέχνη ( téchne ), and assembling examples from classical, Christian, and modern secular figures—from Apelles, Anselm, and Hugo to Hopkins, Heidegger, and Koestler—it argues that téchne is not an alternative or antagonist to poíēsis , but its necessary condition. The act of creation, the essay contends, thereby reveals a uniquely human capacity—precisely because it discloses something beyond the human: a participation in the Λόγος ( Lógos ), the divine intelligibility that, in Christian theology, grounds and defines the human condition.