MIRACLE PLAYS. See Religious Dramas.

MIRACLES

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Biblical Data (§ 1).

Patristic and Scholastic Views (§ 2).

Post-Reformation Theories (§ 3).

Theory and Proof of Miracles (§ 4).

Arguments against Miracles (§ 5).

Classification of Miracles (§6).

Present Tendencies (§ 7).

The concept of miracles, found in nearly all religions, is due to the belief in the power of the supernatural over the world, either in whole or in part. The types of miracles are as manifold as the religions themselves, ranging from cosmic phenomena (especially of creation and eschatology) and divine manifestations to the founders of religions, to omens and warnings, rewards and punishments, and responses to prayer and priestly power.

1. Biblical Data

The Bible bears witness to the general belief in miracles, although here, in contradistinction to other oriental religions, miracles are, in general, fewer in number and more religious in character. This is in keeping with the spirituality of the Biblical concept of God, who, though omnipotent (Gen. xviii. 14; Job xlii. 2; Ps. lxxvii. 14), is regarded as acting only in accordance with his nature. Creation and rain, comfort to the sorrowing and thwarting of the wicked are all miracles (Job. v. 9 sqq.). The concept of the orderly progress of all natural phenomena is extremely firm in the Old Testament (cf. Gen. viii. 22; Ps. cxlviii. 5-6; Jer. xxxi. 35-36), and this same concept prevails in the New Testament, where the religious character of miracles is even more marked since phenomenal miracles are here combined with spiritual miracles,

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Accordingly, the miracles of Christ are intended to prove that the time of redemption or of the kingdom of God is come (Matt. xi. 5, xii. 28; Mark ii. 10-11). Not only did Christ work no miracles for his own benefit (Matt. iv. 4, 7, xxvi. 53), but he refused miracles to those who asked unworthily (Matt. xvi. 1 sqq.). His miracles were wrought through his word or in virtue of the spirit of God that dwelt within him (Matt. viii. 16, xii. 28, xv. 28; Mark i. 25, ii. 11; John iv. 50; Acts x. 38), and although later in his career external miracles became less numerous, yet he promised his disciples that they would do greater miracles than he (John xiv. 12 sqq.). This implies, however, simply the greater miracles of the operations of the Spirit upon the heart; and when Paul concentrates the operation of the Spirit on the Gospel and prefers love to all external marvels (I Cor. xiii.), he followed the thoughts of Christ himself, the concept of the New Testament which through the Spirit writes the will of God upon the heart of man (Jer. xxxi. 33; Ezek. xxxvi. 26-27; Joel ii. 28). While, moreover, individual miracles are less important and striking than in other religions, it must be borne in mind that in Christianity religion itself bears an essentially miraculous character, seen not only in every event in the life of Christ and in the experiences of the apostles, but in the religious life of the Christian.

In the centuries following primitive Christianity the miracles of the Spirit came gradually to be depreciated, while the inner transformation of the Christian received an interpretation of mere psychology. The desire for miracles was gratified by legends of the apostles, martyrs, and confessors, or, still later, of hermits and monks; Jew- s. PatdB- ish eschatology was adopted with all tic and its marvels; and even a series of de- Scholastic moniac miracles was taken from early Views. folklore. Side by side with this practical belief in miracles was evolved the theory regarding them. The basis for this was laid by Augustine. Holding that the world is full of miracles and is itself the greatest of all miracles, yet realizing that the marvels of creation become commonplace, he taught that God, who alone can create, caused new miracles to appear, though he had possessed them from all eternity. While these miracles apparently contradict the laws of nature, they do not really do so, since God, being the crea tor of nature, can create nothing opposed to it. The elements of the world contain, in addition to their " visible seeds," certain " hidden seeds," which are the source of miracles. There is, therefore, a hidden and inner operation of God in addition to the operation of natural causes. In themselves both these operations are equally marvelous and are simply different components of one and the same creation. The difference between miraculous and natural events is, therefore, not objective but sub jective-" the miracle does not violate nature, but only nature as now known " (De civitate Dei, XXI., viii. 2). The Neo-Platonic theory of Augustine never vanished, though the Aristotelian causal the ory of the universe maintained by Thomas Aquinas contested its supremacy in the Church. Nothing can happen outside the sum total of the system of divine governance, and in the great systematized order called the world God works as the first cause which simply determines a long chain of causes. In this sum total God can make no change, but he both can and does substitute some individual secondary causes for others. The result is a miracle, and God accordingly created cosmic order with the condition that he himself might be directly operative in it otherwise than through the usual and regularly operative causes. Miracles are accordingly defined as "those things which are done by God contrary to causes known to us" (Summa I., quaest. cv. art. 6). Miracles are thus placed within the sphere of divine governance, the sole difference between them and ordinary natural phenomena being that in the latter God is the first in a causal series, while in the case of miracles he directly intervenes. Not all direct intervention of God, however, is to be considered a miracle, this category including only deviations from the course of nature, whereas .justification and creation are not miracles.

Luther held that God had caused visible miracles in the early stages of Christianity to foster belief in it and that these, subsequently proving unnecessary, were replaced by the far greater