| DOCTRINES AND DOGMAS |
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| 3 MAJOR THEMES AND
MOTIFS |
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Miracles are extraordinary and
astonishing happenings that are attributed to the presence and action of an
ultimate or divine power. This section treats the nature, functions, and sources
of miracles; it then attempts to discover the place of miracles in the religions
of the world and the variety of interpretations given to them. It considers
miracles mainly as seen, experienced, and interpreted in the religious context,
irrespective of the scientific or philosophical judgment passed on them from the
outside. |
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A miracle is generally defined,
according to the etymology of the word--it comes from the Greek thaumasion and the Latin miraculum--as
that which causes wonder and astonishment, being extraordinary in itself and
amazing or inexplicable by normal standards. Because that which is normal and
usual is also considered as natural, miracles have occasionally been defined as
supernatural events, but this definition presupposes a very specific conception
of nature and natural laws and cannot, therefore, be generally applied. The
significance of a miraculous event is frequently held to reside not in the event
as such but in the reality to which it points (e.g., the presence or activity of a divine power); thus, a miracle
is also called a sign--from
the Greek semeion (biblical Hebrew ot)--signifying
and indicating something beyond itself. Extraordinary and astonishing
occurrences become specifically religious phenomena when they express, reveal,
or signify a religious reality, however defined. (see also nature,
philosophy of, religious
experience) |
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Belief in miraculous happenings is a
feature of practically all religions, and the incidence of miracles (i.e.,
of belief in and reports regarding miracles) is universal, though their
functions, nature, purpose, and explanations vary with the social and
cultural--including theological and philosophical--context in which they appear.
However inexplicable, all miracles have an explanation in the sense that they
are accounted for in terms of the religious and cultural system that supports
them and that, in turn, they are meant to support. Without such an
accompanying--explicit or implicit--theory (e.g.,
the presence, activity, and intervention of such realities as gods, spirits,
or magical powers), there would be no miracles in the aforementioned sense but
only unexplained phenomena. |
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There is no general rule determining the
types of occurrences that can be classified as miracles; they vary according to
the cultural matrix of beliefs and assumptions. The mythological accounts of the
origins of the gods and their activities in the primeval past, as well as
accounts of the activities of other primeval beings, such as first ancestors and
culture heroes, should, perhaps, not be classed as miracles, and the term is
better reserved for outer, objective events--as distinct from such phenomena as
inner experiences and visions--that can be regarded as divine interventions or
as manifestations of divine or supernatural powers. In many cultures, primitive
as well as some that were more highly developed, such as the ancient classical
and Oriental civilizations, the operation of extraordinary forces was taken for
granted and was integrated into the total world picture and into the procedures
and the modes of action--e.g., magic,
oracles, divination, and shamanism--of ordinary life. There were certain kinds
of divine or spirit action and of cosmic operation that were considered to be a
part of the normal order of things, even though it was generally admitted that
priests and shamans would frequently resort to deception in their diverse
activities, which included such manifestations as prophecy, oracles, healing,
magic, and judgment by ordeal. (see also primitive religion) |
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The purpose of a miracle may be in the
direct and immediate result of the event--e.g.,
deliverance from imminent danger (thus, the passage of the children of
Israel through the Red Sea in the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter 14),
cure of illness, or provision of plenty to the needy. Nevertheless, the ultimate
purpose frequently is the demonstration of the power of the god or of the saint,
the "man of God" through whom the god works, to whom the miracle is
attributed. Thus, the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites is described not
solely in terms of salvation from great danger but as a revelation
of the saving presence of God and of the consequent obligation to serve and obey
him; according to the account in Exodus: "and Israel saw the great work
which the Lord did against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and
they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses." The purpose of a
miraculous occurrence is thus often to reveal a divine reality or numinous
dimension. The occurrence may be an event concerned with natural needs or
situations, such as illness, hunger, or distress, or a specifically religious
event that effects some form of salvation or revelation, such as the theophany
on Mt. Sinai in which God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments, the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ, or the revelation of the Qur`an to Muhammad. Even
in these specifically religious events, the miraculous element is not
necessarily of the essence but occurs as merely an accompanying circumstance
designed to arrest the attention and to impress on everyone the unique character
and significance of the occasion. Thus, theoretically at least, the theophany at
Mt. Sinai could have taken place without thunder and lightning; Jesus need not
have been born of a virgin; Muhammad need not have made his miraculous
journey to heaven. In actual fact, however, the very nature and quality of a
religious event attracts miraculous elements, elaborations, and embellishments;
and thus, for example, the founders of almost all religions are at the centre of
great miracle cycles, and miracles occur as a rule in connection with persons
and objects of religious significance, such as saints, sacraments, relics, holy
images, and the like. (see also hierophany) |
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In practice it is difficult to
distinguish the revelatory or signifying miracles from miracles of
authentication--i.e., miraculous
happenings that serve: (1) as credentials for claimants to religious authority
in the form of leadership (e.g., in
Exodus, chapter 4, Moses convinces the Israelites of the authenticity of his
mission by miraculous performances) or prophecy (e.g.,
in Deuteronomy, chapter 18, it is said that a prophet
is disqualified if the sign that he has predicted does not come to pass); (2) as
the demonstration of the superior power of a particular god (e.g.,
in Exodus, chapter 7, Aaron's staff swallowed up the staffs of the Egyptian
magicians, which showed the superiority of the God of the Israelites); (3) as
proof of the sanctity of a holy man, a holy site, or a holy object; or (4) more
generally as evidence of the truth of a particular religion. |
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The source of miracles is always a
divine, spiritual, supernatural, sacred, or numinous power that may be conceived
in personal form (e.g., God, gods,
spirits) or impersonal form (e.g., mana
or magic). The sacred may
manifest itself in natural phenomena, such as thunderstorms or earthquakes, that
evoke appropriate feelings of awe, but these are not usually considered miracles
unless attended by special circumstances--e.g.,
being predicted by a "man of God" or coinciding with an event of
religious significance. As reported in the Gospel According to Matthew, chapter
27, at the moment of Jesus' death on the cross, "the curtain of the temple
was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were
split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen
asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went
into the holy city and appeared to many." The belief that thunder and
lightning are manifestations of divine powers is very common, and many deities
have been interpreted as personifying them or at least as being symbolized by
them. Even in the Old Testament, thunderstorms and lightnings appear as
manifestations or messengers of God. In this respect, the account of the
theophany granted to the prophet Elijah in I Kings, chapter 19, marks a
milestone in the history of religions, for "behold, the Lord passed by, and
a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before
the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the
Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice" in which
Elijah heard God. (see also sacred
and profane) |
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In most cases theophanies and divine
manifestations occur for a specific purpose: giving laws (e.g., Moses and the theophany at Mt. Sinai; events in the lives of
Numa Pompilius of Rome, Minos of Crete, and Lycurgus of Sparta, the ancient
lawgivers in classical legend); saving interventions (e.g., the voices resounding from the temple of Athena Pronaea in
Delphi that caused the Persians to retreat); and the founding of cults (e.g.,
the appearances of Mary, the mother of Jesus, at Lourdes, France, and
Fatima, Portugal). Gods would appear to their devotees in visions and dreams,
but these experiences should, perhaps, not be treated under the same general
heading with other miracles. Immediate divine action was often perceived in
omens preceding important undertakings, in apparently natural phenomena
occurring providentially at critical moments or in miraculous--i.e.,
sudden and seemingly impossible--cures. In most cases, however, such divine
interventions took place through some form of mediation, human or inanimate. |
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Man can be the object of miracles, as
when his disease is miraculously healed, or their subject, as when he performs
miracles, such as healing others, in the name of whatever power is moving him.
The two aspects cannot always be strictly distinguished, as is seen in the case
of saints whose bodies are
immune from corruption after death or founders of religions whose birth is
attended by supernatural manifestations. Generally speaking, however, it is the
role of holy personages--and of their tombs and relics--as sources of miracles
that are of importance in the history of religions and more especially in the
history of popular cults. (see also faith healing ) |
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The attitudes of the founders of the
great religions toward miracles vary considerably, but all have become the
subject of legends of the most fantastic kind in popular belief, and much of
this legendary material has been subsequently canonized in scripture and
tradition. |
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Much closer to the lives and devotion of
ordinary folk than the superhuman figures of the founders are the saints, monks,
ascetics, and diverse kinds of holy men and women. The attitude toward saints
and their miracles is very much the same on the popular levels of all religions,
although the theoretical interpretations on the more theological level vary
considerably. In Far Eastern religions it is often difficult to distinguish
between saints and hero gods, because great men of renowned virtue can be
deified and venerated and even receive officially approved state cults. Miracles
occur as a matter of course at their tombs and relics. In Muslim as well as in
Christian belief, the occurrence of miracles is part of the requirements for
official recognition of sainthood and is interpreted as a special intervention
by God, who thereby manifests his esteem for the saint or, more essentially, his
salvific presence as realized concretely in the life and virtues of the saint.
In Indian--Hindu and Buddhist--belief, miraculous powers are the
"natural" result of ascetic practice and spiritual realization and can
thus be considered as an almost natural manifestation of magical or spiritual
causes. (see also hero
worship) |
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Because the life span even of saints is
limited, most of the miracles attributed to them occur through their inanimate
remains at their tombs or through their relics.
These relics may be parts of their bodies--often deliberately dismembered for
wider distribution, so that a bone may be in one place, a hair in another, and
the heart someplace else--or objects or parts of objects associated with their
lives (e.g., the shroud of Christ or fragments of the True Cross). |
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Not all miracle-working objects of
veneration are relics. Statues and icons can work miracles, and in many
Christian countries images and icons of the Virgin Mary are especially famed for
their miraculous virtues. In the Christian Middle Ages the veneration of the
sacrament of the Eucharist
brought about a proliferation of miracles. Here, as in the case of images, a
distinction can be made between the magical character of folk beliefs and the
diverse theological doctrines concerning these religious objects; only rarely
have religious authorities opposed the cult of saints, images, and relics and
the concomitant belief in miracles--an exception is classical Protestantism,
which in the 16th century rejected such cults. |
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Although they are not strictly sources
of miracles, talismans and amulets--i.e.,
objects believed to possess magical virtues such as good luck or protection
of the bearer or owner from all kinds of danger--should be mentioned in this
connection. They are found in diverse forms and sizes and in all kinds of
material. |
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Miracles are often connected with
special sacred places.
Normally these are natural shrines,
such as sacred groves, or temples and sanctuaries in which a god or spirit lives
or has manifested himself or in which his statue, symbol, holy objects, or
relics are enshrined. Holy places, such as Mecca
and the Ka'bah in Islam
or the Buddhist stupas, are
centres of pilgrimages and veneration because of their religious significance
and the religious values that they symbolize and not necessarily because
miracles are wrought there; yet, popular devotion associates miracles with many
of these holy sites. |
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It has already been suggested that the
mythologies of primitive and ancient religions should not be designated
miraculous insofar as they deal with mythical origins and ages; frequently they
attempt to explain how certain regularities and what is now considered the
normal course of things have come into being. The crucial distinction lies
between religion on the popular primitive level and the more highly developed
forms of religious belief. The tendency of the former is to relate to a
concrete, magical presence of the sacred and to envisage the possibility of
using this presence for the achievement of such desired ends as healing,
blessing, or success in an undertaking. The higher forms of religion--though
recognizing miracles or even demanding dogmatic affirmation of belief in
them--exhibit a far more differentiated and complex attitude. |
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Hellenistic
religion presents one of the best examples of a
civilization in which miracles play a major part. The intervention of the gods
in the affairs of the Homeric heroes takes place in a cosmos in which the divine
and human spheres still interact. Later Hellenistic syncretism conceived of the
sublunar world as a distinct sphere, though higher powers could miraculously
irrupt into it. Miraculous cures (e.g., at the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus), divine
manifestations of various kinds (e.g., voices,
dreams, and theophanies), and even virgin births and resurrections were widely
reported. |
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In the great religions of the East the
belief in miracles is closely connected with the theory that ascetic practices
and the knowledge of mystical formulas, such as the Sanskrit mantras,
can give the practitioner unlimited magical powers. |
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India has become the classic land of
wonders not because of the accounts of fantastic actions of divine beings or
semidivine heroes and avatars (incarnations of Hindu gods) related in Indian
mythology but because both popular religion and philosophical theory set no
bounds to the magical powers that can be attained by great ascetics and yogis
(adherents of Yoga, the Hindu philosophy teaching the suppression of all
activity of mind, body, and will in order that the self may realize its
distinction from them and attain liberation). Even if these magical powers are
considered insignificant in higher religion and spiritually negligible, their
reality is never doubted. The Upanisad and
the Brahmana--ancient Sanskrit
writings of the Vedic period--may consider the heights of religious insight and
mystical experience as man's supreme aim, but neither the later classical
sources nor contemporary Hindu belief ever question the miraculous powers of a
holy man. The same attitude is shared by the other religions of Indian origin:
Jainism and Buddhism. (see
also Hinduism) |
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The Buddha himself refused to spread his
teaching by impressing his audience with miracles. According to the Anguttara
Nikaya, one of the collections of the Buddha's sayings, there are three
kinds of miracles--the miracle of magic, the miracle of thought reading, and the
miracle of instruction--and of these the last is the most wonderful and
excellent, whereas the other two are not much better than a conjuror's tricks.
Yet the same text also describes what is implied by the miracle of magic:
"there is one who, . . . having been one becomes many, . . . appears and
vanishes, unhindered he goes through walls. . . . He dives in and out of the
earth as if it were water. Without sinking he walks on water as if on earth.
Seated cross-legged he travels through the sky like a winged bird. With his hand
he touches and strokes the sun and the moon. . . ." The same text also
asserts that not only was Gautama endowed with these powers but so also were
hundreds of monks of his order. |
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In China, although Confucianism in the
strict sense has little room for miraculous elements, Taoism
has produced a rich crop of thaumaturgy and magic on all levels of folk
religion. No doubt the teaching of the Tao (literally, the Way) can be
interpreted in terms of a sublime moral and perhaps even mystical doctrine. In
actual fact it was one of the main sources of Chinese magic in all its forms,
including the quest for the elixir of life. Religious Taoism, with its theory of
a balance and interaction of cosmic forces, lent itself to elaboration and
expression on all levels--from philosophy to pseudo-science to magic. |
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In Western monotheistic
religions it is necessary to distinguish between the role of miracles on the
level of popular beliefs and practices and the theory of miracles propounded by
the theologians. Belief in a personal, omnipotent Creator who exercises his
providence over his creatures implies a concept of miracles as deliberate
interventions in the course of events by the same sovereign God who also assures
their normal regularity. |
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Miracles are taken for granted
throughout the Old Testament.
God does "wondrous things" according to Psalms, chapter 72, and
"great things and unsearchable, marvellous things without number"
according to the Book of Job, chapter 5; these things are done in his creation
in general and in the history of his people in particular (e.g., the 10 plagues of Egypt and the events of the Exodus). A list
of the great wonders done by God is given in Psalms, chapter 136; their purpose
is to make his creatures praise him, acknowledge his rule, and "know that I
am the Lord." God's wondrous deeds range from the normal regularities of
creation to extraordinary interventions that run counter to ordinary experience
and thus serve as signs of his greatness and providence in wreaking vengeance on
the wicked and giving salvation to his elect. |
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Later rabbinic Judaism took the
occurrence of miracles for granted. It assumed a natural order in which things
worked and within which humans were supposed to discharge their duties; thus, to
rely on miracles was nothing short of sinful. In special circumstances, however,
or in connection with persons of extraordinary saintliness, God would intervene
or spectacularly answer their petitionary prayers. It was not so much a matter
of suspending as of relativizing nature, the normal course of which was just one
possible expression of the divine will. It was only in the Middle Ages and under
the influence of Greco-Arabic philosophy that the problem of miracles was
systematically discussed on a philosophical and theological level. Normative,
rabbinic Judaism, being mainly concerned with doing God's will as revealed in
his Law, had little interest in miracles, though it accepted, as a matter of
course, the veracity of the miracles recorded in Scripture and in the Talmud
(the collection of Jewish lore, legend, and law). On the level of popular piety
both magic and the belief in miracles always flourished, especially under the
influence of Kabbala, the
esoteric, mystical movement within Judaism; the Hasidic
movement (a pietist movement that arose in eastern Europe in the 18th century)
in particular produced a rich crop of beliefs and legends concerning the
miraculous virtue--through prayer, intercession, or magical power--of the great Hasidic
saints and rabbis. |
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New
Testament accounts of the advent, birth, life,
Passion, and Resurrection of Christ
include many miracles. Jesus is reported in the Gospels to have performed
miracles of diverse kinds: raising the dead, healing the sick, casting out
demons, and causing nature miracles, such as the multiplication of loaves and
the turning of water into wine at the town of Cana. Unlike the Buddha and Muhammad,
Jesus had an ambiguous attitude toward miracles: on the one hand he performed
them as a sign of his mission and of the impending coming of the Kingdom; on the
other hand he reproved the desire for wonders and repeatedly forbade the
disciples to publicize his miracles, insisting that it was faith
alone that worked miracles. In fact, because miracles also could be explained by
attributing them to demonic agency, it was ultimately faith that determined the
quality and function of the miracle. |
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Early Christianity developed in the
atmosphere of Hellenistic, Greco-Roman culture, which was full of miraculous
accounts and legends. These no doubt influenced Christian traditions and forms
of devotion, especially as popular religion always hankered after miracles,
and--at the conclusion of the Gospel According to Mark--Christ himself had
promised the continuance of miracles in his church. In a world in which only a
few critical minds doubted the reality of miracles, the similarity of the
Christian signs to those reported in pagan legend was attributed to demonic
imitation and counterfeit. The problem of distinguishing between the two sources
of miracles--because the devil often disguises himself as an angel of
light--frequently solicited the attention of theologians and mystics. Whereas
for the theologians a miracle was a sign of God's saving presence and design,
for the mass of believers it was the manifestation of a sacred power inherent in
individual persons, places, and objects. (see also sacred and profane) |
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Medieval theologians--and specifically
St. Thomas Aquinas--taught that as all knowledge was derived from sensible
facts, so also "a certain degree of supernatural knowledge of the objects
of faith" could be brought about "by certain supernatural effects that
are called miracles." This doctrine already assumes a system of natural
causality that God--though he normally works through the natural law of which he
is the author and Creator--can temporarily set aside. It also assumes that--at
least in theory, if not always in practice--natural and supernatural effects can
be distinguished. Thus, in 1870 the first
Vatican Council declared: "If anyone should say that no miracles can
be performed, . . . or that they can never be known with certainty, or that by
them the divine origin of the Christian religion cannot be rightly proved--let
him be anathema." Belief in miracles is thus obligatory in the Roman
Catholic Church, although belief in any specific miracle is not
necessarily so. Classical Protestantism, however, has confined its belief in
miracles to those recorded in Scripture. (see also Thomism) |
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Muslim religion assumes, as a matter of
course, that Allah works miracles and has done so in the past; e.g.,
through Moses, Solomon, and Jesus but significantly not through the Prophet Muhammad.
According to the Qur`an, Muhammad explicitly rejected the idea of
proving his vocation by signs and miracles: the Qur`an itself was the
greatest miracle, and he was but a human messenger and preacher of repentance.
Nevertheless, subsequent narratives invested his birth and life with
superlatively miraculous details. |
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Muslim popular religion--particularly
under Sufi (Islamic mysticism) influence--abounds in
miracles, pilgrimages to the tombs of wonder-working saints, and the like.
Dogmatic theology, too, recognizes miracles as facts. The peculiar feature of
Muslim theology is that, unlike Christian theology, it did not accept the idea
of nature as an entity operating according to fixed laws ordained by the
Creator. Because the universe is constantly being re-created by Allah in
successive time atoms, natural regularity is nothing but the regularity of Allah's
habit in re-creating the universe. Thus, a miracle is the omnipotent God's
departure from his habit but no different, in principle, from the latter. Muslim
dogmatics distinguish between miracles (karamat),
with which Allah surrounds his saints (awliya`) as a mark of distinction, and signs (ayat, also mu'jizat; literally,
"acts of an overwhelming nature"). The latter are wrought by Allah
to prove the genuineness of his messengers and to overwhelm and reduce to
silence their opponents. Such miracles, which deviate from the usual course of
things and are of such nature that others cannot produce their like, are Allah's
testimony to the sincerity of his apostles. The problem is nevertheless
complicated by the fact that Satan too can perform miracles. Generally speaking,
miracles do not play a role in the continued life of orthodox Islam,
though they loom large in popular belief and piety. (see also Sufism) |
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All the more fully developed theologies
have formulated a doctrine of miracles in the context of their beliefs regarding
God, the world, the operations of nature, and causality. The emergence of the
concept of nature as a closed system functioning in accordance with strict
causal laws created problems more than once, but medieval Christian and Jewish
thought had no difficulty in maintaining that the order created by God could
also be suspended by him. (see also nature, philosophy
of) |
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Miracles were denied even in classical
antiquity. Thus, Cicero
asserted that "nothing happens without a cause, and nothing happens unless
it can happen. When that which can happen does in fact happen, it cannot be
considered a miracle. Hence, there are no miracles." Cicero qualified this
statement, however, by saying that miracle stories may be necessary for the
piety of ignorant folk. The 2nd-century pagan philosopher Celsus
is less dogmatic in his attacks on Christianity: the Christian miracles are
insufficiently attested and most improbable, but, even if they were genuine,
they could hardly offset the miracles of the pagan world--e.g.,
the healings of Asclepius. This was the standard pattern of many religious
polemics: miracles as such were not necessarily denied; only those claimed by
the adversary were denied. When these could not be denied, they were ascribed to
diabolic agency or to the fraudulent practices of priests or occasionally to a
misinterpretation of essentially natural phenomena. (see also causality) |
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Rationalist
criticism, although not completely absent in the Middle Ages, became a major
factor in the 18th and 19th centuries. David
Hume, a British empiricist and a skeptic, in the chapter "On
Miracles" in his Enquiry
Concerning Human Understandingargued that, given the general experience of the uniformity of nature,
miracles were highly improbable and that the evidence in their favour was far
from convincing. It should be emphasized that Hume, whose criticism led him to a
denial of causality, did not dismiss miracles because they were inconsistent
with causal law--as many other thinkers did, notably the Deists (those,
especially British, who advocated a natural religion). Instead Hume insisted on
the probability factor and thus on the importance of assessing historical
evidence. Because all Christians agreed that biblical religion and the scheme of
salvation set forth in it could be maintained only by stressing prophecy and
miracle, there developed a vast body of literature, especially among
Protestants, proving the authenticity of the Christian faith on the basis of the
miracles recorded in the Bible. For many 18th-century thinkers, however, the
vastness and complexity of the order of nature were even more impressive than
any alleged exceptions to it. Thus, belief in miracles, although remaining an
essential element of faith to good Christians, appeared as sheer superstition to
the eyes of the torchbearers of Rationalist enlightenment. (see also Deism) |
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Criticism of the concept of miracle was
articulated in more than one way. There was philosophical and scientific
criticism to the effect that miracles were impossible and that even
epistemologically (i.e., within the
limits of knowledge) the occurrence of a miracle could never be established; at
most, these critics maintained, there were merely as yet unexplained natural
phenomena. (This view comes close to the religious assertion that faith precedes
the experience of a miracle and that the factuality of a miracle can never
precede faith.) There was historical and philological criticism, arguing that
the actual occurrence of miracles is unsubstantiated and analyzing the growth
and evolution of the legends and texts reporting miracles. There was
psychological criticism, arguing that some people want to believe in miracles
and so produce imaginative creations answering their psychological needs. There
was also a type of religious criticism implying that the truly spiritual has no
need of miraculous supports. One suggested solution to the problem was the
assertion that the term miracle does not describe an objective event but rather
a subjective mode of experience. This view of Friedrich
Schleiermacher, an early-19th-century Protestant theologian and
philosopher, identified miracle with a religious understanding of any aspect of
the world. |
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Later 19th- and 20th-century liberal
Protestant thinkers, such as Rudolf
Bultmann, a German New Testament scholar, discarded the traditional
notion of miracle together with other elements of what they termed the
mythological apparatus of the Bible. Many of these liberal theologians sought
evidence for Christianity in the moral and religious transformation it brought
to people's lives or interpreted the doctrine of salvation in Existential terms.
The early decades of the 20th century, however, also witnessed a return to a
more orthodox theological climate--as, for example, in the thought of Karl
Barth, a Swiss Protestant theologian--and a new readiness to accept
miracles as meaningful signs of God's salvific activity. This change of climate
coincided with certain developments in science that appeared to question a too
rigid and mechanical concept of causal determinism. (see also Protestantism) |
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Orthodox Jews, Christians, and Muslims
still believe in the literal occurrence of the miracles recorded in their
scriptures and traditions; Roman Catholics, furthermore, believe in the
continued occurrence of miracles, defining them as a direct divine effect upon
nature. The liberal attitude--whatever the variations in detail and in
sophistication of the explanation--is essentially similar to that propounded by
Schleiermacher. ( R.J.Z.W./Ed.) |
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