Monotheism and Miracle

By understanding creation and miracle in terms of narrative, this Element discusses how miracles may be evaluated within monotheism.

Eric Eve (Author)

9781009547871, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 February 2025

70 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.268 kg

Monotheism implies a God who is active in creation. An author writing a novel provides a better analogy for God's creative activity than an artificer constructing a mechanism. A miracle is then not an interruption of the ordinary course of nature so much as a divine decision to do something out of the ordinary, and miracle is primarily a narrative category. We perceive as miracles events that are extraordinary while also fitting our understanding of divine purpose. Many miracle accounts may remain problematic, however, since recognizing that a given story purports to narrate a miracle does not determine whether the miracle occurred. This Elementweighs competing narratives. In doing so the understanding of the normal workings of nature will carry considerable weight. Nevertheless, there can be instances where believers may, from their own faith perspective, be justified in concluding that a miracle has occurred.

1. Preliminaries
2. Narrative approaches
3. Examples of miracles
4. Assessing miracles
5. Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Religion: general [HRA]