Miracles

Do miracles really happen? What is the evidence for paranormal phenomena that demonstrate divine power, and what alternative explanations can be offered for such apparently miraculous occurrences? How does the earnest inquirer assess the conflicting evidence and reach a conclusion? These and related questions are answered in this illuminating examination of miracle claims by respected historical, paranormal, and forensic investigator Joe Nickell. Not a critique of religion but rather a careful examination of the evidence relating to specific claims of the miraculous, Looking for a Miracle investigates a panoply of strange events, powers, and objects that are at the center of the controversy between so-called miraculists and confirmed skeptics. Among the phenomena studied are "Miraculous Pictures", like the Shroud of Turin, the Edessan Image, and the Image of Guadalupe; seemingly "Magical Icons", such as weeping, bleeding, and otherwise animated paintings and statues; "Mystical Relics", including "burning handprints", the liquefying blood of St. Januarius, and ostensibly "incorruptible" corpses of saints; "Pentecostal Powers", such as speaking in tongues, the gift of prophecy, taking up serpents, and other powers and immunities; "Faith Healing", including the reported miracle cures at Lourdes and the practices of evangelists, Christian Scientists, and "psychic surgeons"; "Ecstatic Visions", like the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima and Medjugorje; and such "Sanctified Powers" as luminosity, levitation, bilocation, stigmata, inedia (the going without food); and the ability to produce objects out of thin air. Looking for a Miracle is a wide-ranging investigative study of acontroversial topic that has all too often been approached either with excessive credulity or a dismissive attitude. Religious believers and rationalist thinkers alike have much to learn from this revealing examination of the eviden

Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity presents a collection in translation of miracle stories from the ancient world. The material is divided up into four main categories including healing, exorcism, nature and raising the dead.Wendy Cotter, in an introduction and notes to the selections, contextualizes the miracles within the background of the Greco-Roman world and also compares the stories to other Jewish and non-Jewish miracle stories of the Mediterranean world. This sourcebook provides an interdisciplinary collection of material which will be of value to students of the New Testament.

The story of Jesus of Nazareth, as recounted in the New Testament, has always been understood by the church to be historically true. It is an account of the life, death, and resurrection of a real person, whose links with history are firmly signalled in the creeds of the early church, which affirm that Jesus 'suffered under Pontius Pilate'. Contemporary historical scholarship has, however, called into question the reliability of the church's version of this story, and thereby raised the question as to whether ordinary people can know its historical truth. This book argues that the historicity of the story still matters, and that its religious significance cannot be captured by the category of 'non-historical myth'. The commonly drawn distinction between the Christ of faith and Jesus of history cannot be maintained. The Christ who is the object of faith must be seen as historical; the Jesus who is reconstructed by historical scholarship is always shaped by commitments of faith. A reconsideration of the Enlightenment epistemologies that underlie much historical scholarship shows that historical knowledge of this story is still possible. Such knowledge can be inferential, based on historical evidence. A careful look at contemporary New Testament studies, and the philosophical and literary assumptions upon which it rests, shows that this scholarship should not undermine the confidence of lay people who believe that they can know that the church's story about Jesus is true.

Spanning from 5th century Greece to today, this volume describes the relationship of science and religion throughout history. From ancient cosmology to modern physics, every major intellectual movement and discipline is covered.

Helms analyzes the most familiar and powerful stories about Jesus, and suggests that the Gospels are works of narrative art, contrived and creative interpretations, the supreme fictions of our culture.

"This book represents scholarship well-communicated".

"Donald Gelpi's Christological trilogy is an important contribution to the discipline combining as it does both foundational and constructive Christology. Gelpi carefully establishes his methodological choices and situates them amid other theological options on the present scene. He then builds his case by moving through the foundational issues and explicating them in regard to their import for a systematic Christology. Connections are made with his earlier work and here Gelpi continues his theological project of establishing a new foundationalism (with its Peircean pragmatic logic of consequences, the turn to community, and a fallibilistic metaphysics of experience) and exploits it for doctrinal theology. Gelpi's proposals will certainly not be without its critics but his attempt to inculturate the philosophical issues in a North American idiom should be on the table "The strength of Gelpi's volumes is the care with which he examines the issues on the agenda of any contemporary Christology. These include in addition to methodological issues (not always consciously attended to and seldom with the philosophical attention which Gelpi gives them), the quest for the historical Jesus, and the diversity of New Testament Christologies. Gelpi's contribution is to take these issues seriously and weave them into a constructive narrative of contemporary Christological development, at each point highlighting how they address the pertinent issues in theological foundations. Hence the bulk of his efforts is working through New Testament material in order to establish the constructive sequence: Jesus of history, kerygmatic Christology (Pauline corpus), apocalyptic Christology (book of Revelation), narrative Christology (synoptic gospels), doctrinal Christology (picking up from the particular narrative Christology of the Gospel of John, Chalcedon and post-Chalcedonian developments), and practical Christology (working with liberationist themes but consistent with his foundational pragmatism). All are related to a foundational theology of conversion and are rendered pastoral by addressing their implications for Roman Catholic RCIA practice.

Is it possible to prove or disprove God's existence? Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over the centuries: in The Non-Existence of God , Nicholas Everitt considers all of the arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge play in the debate over God's existence. He draws on recent scientific disputes over neo-Darwinism, the implication of 'big bang' cosmology, and the temporal and spatial size of the universe; and discusses some of the most recent work on the subject, leading to a controversial conclusion.

This vital study offers a new interpretation of Hume's famous "Of Miracles," which notoriously argues against the possibility of miracles. By situating Hume's popular argument in the context of the 18th century debate on miracles, Earman shows Hume's argument to be largely unoriginal and chiefly without merit where it is original. Yet Earman constructively conceives how progress can be made on the issues that Hume's essay so provocatively posed about the ability of eyewitness testimony to establish the credibility of marvelous and miraculous events.

In Stages of Thought, Michael Barnes examines a pattern of cognitive development that has evolved over thousands of years--a pattern manifest in both science and religion. He describes how the major world cultures built upon our natural human language skills to add literacy, logic, and, now, a highly critical self-awareness. In tracing the histories of both scientific and religious thought, Barnes shows why we think the way that we do today. Although religious and scientific modes of thought are often portrayed as contradictory-one is highly rational while the other appeals to tradition and faith-Barnes argues that they evolved together and are actually complementary. Using the developmental thought of Piaget, he argues that cultures develop like individuals in that both learn easier cognitive skills first and master the harder ones later. This is especially true, says Barnes, because the harder ones often require first the creation of cognitive technology like writing or formal logic as well as the creation of social institutions that teach and sustain those skills. Barnes goes on to delineate the successive stages of the co-evolution of religious and scientific thought in the West, from the preliterate cultures of antiquity up to the present time. Along the way, he covers topics such as the impact of literacy on human modes of thought; the development of formalized logic and philosophical reflections; the emergence of an explicitly rational science; the birth of formal theologies; and, more recently, the growth of modern empirical science. This groundbreaking book offers a thorough and persuasive argument in favor of the development of modes of thought across cultures. It will serve as an invaluable resource for historians of religion, philosophers and historians of science, and anyone interested in the relationship between religion and science.

In this edited volume, Richard Davis & his colleagues examine how religious images are understood by practitioners in Asia & what social, cultural, & political aspects are connected to the "miracles" associated with these images. Unlike previous works on images in Asia, this book significantly expands the inquiry to include not only Hindu images but Jain & Buddhist images as well & moves beyond India to also look at examples in China & Japan. This important contribution to Asian studies & to the comparative study of religion should interest not only scholars of Asian religious texts but also students of Asian art history, architecture, & archaeology. Contents: Introduction: Miracles as Social Acts, Richard H. Davis. Expected Miracles: The Unsurprisingly Miraculous Nature of Buddhist Images & Relics, Robert L. Brown. The Miraculous Buddha Image: Portrait, God, or Object? R. L. Brown. Divine Delicacies: Monks, Images, & Miracles in the Contest between Jainism & Buddhism, Phyllis Granoff. Miraculous Abhiseka: Miracle & Authority in a South Indian Non-brahmin Lineage, K. I. Koppedrayer. The Jina Bleeds: Threats to the Faith & the Rescue of the Faithful in Medieval Jain Stories, P. Granoff. Changing Roles for Miraculous Images in Medieval Chinese Buddhism: A Study of the Miracle Image Section in Daoxuan's Ji shenzhou, Koichi Shinohara. Dynastic Politics & Miraculous Images: The Example of Zhuli (544-623) of the Changlesi Temple in Yangzhou, K. Shinohara. The Relication of Miraculous Icons: The Zenkoji Amida Triad & the Seiryoji Shaka, Donald F. McCallum.