Miracles

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Although this fact led some</div> <div> Enlightenment philosophers to think that miracles</div> <div> can thus be defined out of existence, it ought</div> <div> rather to alert one to the defectiveness of the modern</div> <div> definition. Natural laws have implicit <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>ceteris</I></FONT></div> <div> <I>paribus </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-Light" >conditions, so that a law states what is the</FONT></div> <div> case under the assumption of certain ideal conditions.</div> <div> If God brings about some event that a law of</div> <div> nature fails to predict or describe, such an event</div> <div> cannot be characterized as a violation of that law,</div> <div> since the law is valid only on the assumption that</div> <div> no supernatural factors come into play.</div> <div> Miracles, then, are better defined as naturally</div> <div> impossible events, that is to say, events that cannot</div> <div> be produced by the natural causes (i.e., those described</div> <div> by physics) operative at a certain time and</div> <div> place. Whether an event is a miracle is thus relative</div> <div> to a time and place. Of course, some events may</div> <div> be absolutely miraculous in that they are at every</div> <div> time and place beyond the productive capacity of</div> <div> natural causes.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Possibility of miracles</b></div> <div> What could conceivably transform an event that is</div> <div> naturally impossible into a real historical event?</div> <div> Clearly, the answer is the personal God of theism.</div> <div> For if a transcendent, personal creator exists, then</div> <div> this God could cause events in the universe that</div> <div> could not be produced by causes within the universe.</div> <div> Given a God who created the universe, who</div> <div> conserves the world in being, and who is capable</div> <div> of acting freely, miracles are evidently possible.</div> <div> A widespread assumption persists that if historical</div> <div> inquiry is to be feasible, then one must</div> <div> adopt a sort of methodological naturalism as a fundamental</div> <div> historiographical principle. This viewpoint</div> <div> is a restatement of Ernst Troeltsch’s principle</div> <div> of analogy, which states that the past does not differ</div> <div> essentially from the present. Though events of</div> <div> the past are, of course, not the same events as</div> <div> those of the present, they must be the same <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>in</I></FONT></div> <div> <I>kind </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-Light" >if historical investigation is to be possible.</FONT></div> <div> Troeltsch realized that any history written on this</div> <div> principle will be skeptical with regard to the historicity</div> <div> of miracles.</div> <div> Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg, however,</div> <div> has persuasively argued that Troeltsch’s principle</div> <div> of analogy cannot be legitimately employed to</div> <div> banish from the realm of history all non-analogous</div> <div> events. Properly defined, analogy means that in a</div> <div> situation that is unclear, the facts ought to be understood</div> <div> in terms of known experience; but</div> <div> Troeltsch has elevated the principle to constrict all</div> <div> past events to purely natural events. But that an</div> <div> event bursts all analogies cannot be used to dispute</div> <div> its historicity. Troeltsch’s formulation of the</div> <div> principle of analogy destroys genuine historical</div> <div> reasoning, since the historian must be open to the</div> <div> uniqueness of the events of the past and cannot</div> <div> exclude events a priori simply because they do not</div> <div> conform to present experience. When myths, legends,</div> <div> illusions, and the like are dismissed as unhistorical,</div> <div> it is not because they are non-analogous,</div> <div> but because they <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>are </I></FONT>analogous to present forms</div> <div> of consciousness having no objective referent.</div> <div> When an event is said to have occurred for which</div> <div> no analogy exists, its reality cannot be automatically</div> <div> dismissed; to do this one would require an</div> <div> analogy to some known form of consciousness</div> <div> lacking an objective referent that would suffice to</div> <div> explain the situation. Pannenberg has thus upended</div> <div> Troeltsch’s principle of analogy such that it</div> <div> is not the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>want </I></FONT>of an analogy that shows an event</div> <div> to be unhistorical, but the presence of a positive</div> <div> analogy to known thought forms that shows a purportedly</div> <div> miraculous event to be unhistorical. In</div> <div> this way, the lack of an analogy to present experience</div> <div> says nothing for or against the historicity of</div> <div> an event. Pannenberg’s formulation of the principle</div> <div> preserves the analogous nature of the past to</div> <div> the present or to the known, thus making the investigation</div> <div> of history possible, without thereby</div> <div> sacrificing the integrity of the past or distorting it.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Identification of miracles</b></div> <div> The question remains whether the identification of</div> <div> any event as a miracle is possible. On the one</div> <div> hand, it might be argued that a convincing demonstration</div> <div> that a purportedly miraculous event has</div> <div> occurred would only succeed in forcing the revision</div> <div> of natural law so as to accommodate the event</div> <div> in question. But a natural law is not abolished because</div> <div> of one exception; the anomaly must occur</div> <div> repeatedly whenever the conditions for it are present.</div> <div> If an event occurs that is anomalous and there</div> <div> are reasons to believe that this event would not</div> <div> occur again under similar circumstances, then the</div> <div> law in question will not be abandoned.</div> <div> On the other hand, it might be urged that if a</div> <div> purportedly miraculous event were demonstrated</div> <div> to have occurred, one should conclude that the</div> <div> event occurred in accordance with unknown natural</div> <div> laws. What serves to distinguish a genuine miracle</div> <div> from a mere scientific anomaly? Here the religio-</div> <div> historical context of the event becomes crucial.</div> <div> A miracle without a context is inherently ambiguous.</div> <div> But if a purported miracle occurs in a significant</div> <div> religio-historical context, then the chances of</div> <div> its being a genuine miracle are increased. For example,</div> <div> if the miracles occur at a momentous time</div> <div> and do not recur regularly in history, and if the</div> <div> miracles are numerous and various, then the</div> <div> chances of their being the result of some unknown</div> <div> natural causes are reduced. Moreover, some miracles</div> <div> (e.g., the resurrection of Jesus) so exceed what</div> <div> is known of the productive capacity of natural</div> <div> causes that they could only be reasonably attributed</div> <div> to a supernatural cause. Thus, while it is difficult</div> <div> to know in many cases whether a genuine</div> <div> miracle has occurred, that does not imply pessimism</div> <div> with respect to all cases.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>