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Summary Miracles (with scholars)
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Aquinas Aquinas defines a miracle as: “things which are done by divine agency beyond the
order commonly observed in nature.” (Realist)
“That which has a divine cause, not that whose cause a human person fails to
understand”
Something which was caused by God, not something which humans could explain
with better understanding.
Aquinas took a realist approach to miracles – as a Theist he believed they could
happen!
Aquinas distinguishes 3 types of miracle, all of which have God as the cause:
a) that which nature can never do:
e.g. the sun and the moon staying still.
b) that which nature can do, but not in that sequence or connection:
e.g. a man blind from birth seeing again.
Parthenogenesis- the development of an ovum (egg) without any genetic
contribution from a male has led Sam Berry to say that he has no difficulty
with the Virgin Birth.
c) that which is usually done by nature, but not in this case:
e.g. instant healing of someone who otherwise may heal slowly.
Aquinas defined a miracle as, “That which has a divine cause, not that whose cause a
human person fails to understand.” This highlights a fundamental point for theists,
miracles are events caused by God. The point of miracle stories is the wondrous
event of the curing of someone and how God worked through Jesus. Aquinas and
Aristotle believe that everything has a meaning since God created it. A miracle has a
divine cause, and it is something intrinsically wonderful and not subjective.
Aquinas defined a miracle as, “That which has a divine cause, not that whose cause a
human person fails to understand.” This highlights a fundamental point for theists,
miracles are events caused by God. The point of miracle stories is the wondrous
event of the curing of someone and how God worked through Jesus.
Things that are done occasionally by divine power outside of the usual established
order of events. Commonly called miracles (wonders). We wonder when we see an
effect and do not know the cause. And because one and the same cause is
sometimes known when to some and unknown to others, it happens that of the
witnesses of the effect some wonder and some do not wonder: thus an astronomer
does not wonder at seeing an eclipse of the sun, at which a person that is ignorant of
astronomy cannot help wondering.
Now the cause absolutely hidden from every man is God, inasmuch as no man in this
life can mentally grasp the essence of God. Those events then are properly to be
, styled miracles, which happen by divine power beyond the order commonly
observed in nature.
Miracles of the highest rank are those in which something is done by God that
nature can never do. Aquinas cited the example of the sun going backwards in the
sky.
Miracles of the second rank are those in which God does something that nature can
do, but not in that sequence and connection. By this, Aquinas meant that walking is
an act of nature, but it is an act of God if someone who uses a wheelchair should be
able to walk again.
'A miracle of the third rank is something done by God, which is usually done by the
operation of nature but is done in this case without the working of natural principles,
as when one is cured by the divine power of a fever, in itself naturally curable, or
when it rains without any working of the elements. For example, Aquinas suggested
that a cure that doctors had considered impossible without the benefit of time and
care could be considered miraculous.
None of the definitions that Aquinas gave seem to consider God's purpose in carrying
out the miracles - Swinburne considers these miracles to be entirely arbitrary. There
appears to be little religious significance in them - nothing is revealed about God's
nature.
He defined miracle as: "That which has a divine cause, not that whose cause a human
person fails to understand" (from Summa Contra Gentiles).
Highlights a fundamental point for theists: miracles are events caused by God.
Miracle comes from Latin 'miraculum' meaning an object of wonder.
The point of miracle stories is the wondrous event of the curing of someone and how
God worked through Jesus. Aquinas and Aristotle believe that everything that exists
has a nature - a statement about what the thing is able to do.
A miracle has a 'divine cause'- the event is not a normal part of the nature of things
and it is something intrinsically wonderful - not subjective.
He believed miracles could be placed in rank order from
1) 'those in which something is done by God that nature can never do' (Biblical
examples)
2) those in which God does something nature can do
3) miracles where God by-passes the normal order of things
Many Christians today develop this by saying that miracles are not only caused by
God but also reveal something about him to people.
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