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Miracles and Theism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Leon Pearl
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Recently there have been in the journals a large number of papers on miracles. The issue debated centred on whether miracles, as violations of natural law by a deity, are possible. Alstair McKinnon, George D. Chryssides and P. S. Wadia contend that the concept of a violation of natural law is defective. Others like Guy Robinson and Malcolm Diamonds claim that the acceptance of miracles constitutes a challenge to scientific autonomy. There have also been defenders of miracles, to name just a few: R. F. Holland, Richard Swinburne and R. C. Wallace. What is, however, overlooked (at any rate not extensively considered) in these polemical discussions is whether theist religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) require miracles, and if they do, whether the concept of a miracle required is that of a violation of a law of nature by God. In the present paper I shall argue for an affirmative response to both questions.

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Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 483 - 495
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

page 483 note 1 McKinnon, Alstair, ‘Miracle and Paradox’, American Philosophical Quarterly IV (1967), 309.Google Scholar

page 483 note 2 Chryssides, D., ‘Miracles and Agents’, Religious Studies XI (1975), 319–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 483 note 3 Wadia, P. S., ‘Miracles and Common Understanding’, Philosophical Quarterly XXVI (1976), 69–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 483 note 4 Robinson, Guy, ‘Miracles’, Ratio (1967), pp. 155–66.Google Scholar

page 483 note 5 Diamond, Malcolm, ‘Miracles’, Religious Studies IX (1973), 307–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 483 note 6 Holland, R. F., ‘The Miraculous’, American Philosophical Quarterly II, (1965), 43–51.Google Scholar

page 483 note 7 Swinburne, Richard, The Concept of Miracle (Macmillan, London, 1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 483 note 8 Wallace, R. C., ‘Hume, Flew and the Miraculous’, Philosophical Quarterly XX (1970), 230–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 483 note 9 Op. Cit. p. 323.

page 483 note 10 ‘Miracles’, in Encyclopedia Judaica, p. 75.Google Scholar The rabbis of the Talmud held that miracles were predetermined at the time of creation. ‘R.Johanan said God made a condition with the sea that it would part before the children of Israel…R. Jermiah b. Eleazar said not with the sea alone, but with whatever God created on the six days of creation’.

page 484 note 1 Gaon, Saadia, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, vol. 1, trans. Rosenblatt, Samuel (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1948), pp. 147–9.Google Scholar

page 484 note 2 Aquinas, St Thomas, Summa Theologica I, question 105, articles 6 and 7.Google Scholar

page 484 note 3 Maimonides, Moses, The Guide of the Perplexed, trans. by Pines, Shlomo (the Univerity of Chicago Press, 1964), p. 345Google Scholar

page 484 note 4 Augustine, St, Works, vol. V, The Marcus Dods edition, pp. 508–9.Google Scholar

page 484 note 5 Leibniz, , Discourse on Metaphysics, trans. Montgomery, George (Open Court, 1916), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

page 484 note 6 See Husik, Isaac, A History of Medieval Jewish Philosophy (The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1941), pp. 358–61.Google Scholar

page 485 note 1 Ibid. pp. 402–3.

page 485 note 2 Descartes, , Philosophical Works, vol. 1, trans. Haldane, Elizabeth S. and Ross, G. R. T. (Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 168.Google Scholar

page 485 note 3 Strauss, David, Das Leben Jesu (Tubingen, 1835)Google Scholar, later trans. by Evans, Mary Ann as The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (London, 1848).Google Scholar

page 485 note 4 Bultmann, , Jesus Christ and Mythology (Scribners, 1958), p. 38.Google Scholar

page 485 note 5 See Anderson, Bernhard, Understanding the Old Testament (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs), pp. 47f.Google Scholar

page 485 note 6 See Rogo, D. Scott, Miracles (New York, 1982).Google Scholar

page 486 note 1 For an objection to miracles on religious grounds, see Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology 1 (Chicago, 1967), 115.Google Scholar

page 486 note 2 Lewis, C. S., Miracles: A Preliminary Study (New York, 1947), pp. 67–75;Google ScholarYoung, Robert, ‘Miracles and Espistemology’, Religious Studies VIII (1972), 115–26;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFern, Robert L., ‘Hume's Critique of Miracles: An Irrelevant Triumph’, Philosophical Quarterly XXXII (1982), 337–54.Google Scholar

page 486 note 3 Op. cit. p. 120.

page 486 note 4 Op. cit. pp. 72–3.

page 487 note 1 Efros, Israel, Ancient Jewish Philosophy (Wayne State University, Detroit, 1964), p. 7.Google Scholar

page 488 note 1 Hobbes, , Leviathan, part III (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1960), 243.Google Scholar

page 488 note 2 Mill, J. S., Theism (The Library of Liberal Arts, 1957), pp. 59–60.Google Scholar Mill's position has recently been advanced by Abraham, William J. in Divine Revelation and the Limits of Historical Criticism. (Oxford University Press 1982) p. 28.Google Scholar ‘Miracles, that is, are the signs whereby the credentials of an agent of God are to be secured. To abandon miracle would thereby entail the loss of significant warrants for special revelation, and as such would constitute a loss of major proportions’. While miracles are essential for revelation, they are not sufficient. This is brought out in the following passage: ‘If a prophet arise among you who giveth a sign or wonder and the sign or wonder comes to pass, but he desires to lead you into idolatry, thou shalt not hearken to that prophet for the Lord your God trieth you whether you truly love the Lord your God’ (Deut. 13: 2–4). Nor is a believer committed to accept all the miracles in the bible. He need not, for instance, accept that Balaam's ass spoke to Balaam (Numbers 12:28). There are certain miracles, however, which are central to Judaism and Christianity. The miracles involved in the exodus from Egypt and in the granting of the Torah are essential for both religions. In addition, Christianity requires the resurrection of Jesus.

page 490 note 1 Gutting, Gary, Religious Belief and Religious Skepticism (University of Notre Dame, 1982), p. 70.Google Scholar

page 490 note 2 Breuer, Isaac, Concepts of Judiasm (Israel Universities Press, Jerusalem, 1974), p. 114.Google Scholar

page 491 note 1 Op. cit. pp. 335–6

page 493 note 1 Hick, John, ‘God, Evil and Mystery’, Religious Studies In (1968), 545–6.Google Scholar

page 494 note 1 Anomalies led to the discovery of the planets Saturn and Pluto. The need to account for the perihelion of Mercury led to the theory of relativity; and more recently the challenge to the principle of the conservation of energy led to the discovery of the neutrino.

page 495 note 1 This statement was made by the eighteenth-century poet Alexander Pope. The idea being that having created the world, God adopted ‘a hands off policy’ towards it, leaving the workings of the world to be discovered by Sir Isaac Newton.