Miracles
Miracles
The idea of miracles was not invented by Christians; the terminology is endemic to theism and has always formed part of the language of religious discourse, in other religions and in paganism, meaning the wonder caused in man by events beyond his understanding. Since the Gospels contain accounts of miracles, an understanding of the miraculous is central to Christianity, but because of its use in other theistic contexts, it has always been a point of discussion. In the early twenty-first century the word “miracle” is given a limited meaning by dictionaries which generally describe a “miracle” as: “an event exceeding the known powers of nature owing to special intervention by a deity or of some supernatural agency.” This is to stress the etymology of the English word “miracle,” which derives its meaning from the Latin mirare, meaning “to wonder.” Exclusive stress is thereby laid on that which causes wonder and amazement. Popular use of the word unfortunately suggests that the more that is known about the laws of nature the less room there is for intervention by God. Miracle is then seen as opposed to nature, in terms of inexplicable wonder, but that is not the basic understanding of miracle within the Christian church. In the ancient world, the statement “the world is full of miracles” would not have meant “the constant infraction of the course of this world” principally because the notion of the law of nature was not used; it would have meant “everything created is a wonder issuing from the hand of God.”
The ideas underlying the English word “miracle” are complex. In the Bible it translates more than one synonym in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. In the New Testament, certain words and actions of Christ are called “miracles,” and the same word is used at times in English translations of the Old Testament. But in Hebrew the words translated by “miracle” are mopet (a prodigy), ot (a sign), and nipla (a marvel), and in Greek these events are called by other names, such as dunamis (an act of power) and, most often of all, semeon (a sign). The Latin Bible did not use miraculum for any of these; they were rendered mainly as signum, though virtus, mirabilia, prodigia, or portentum were also used. The word miraculum entered Christian vocabulary from another source; its root, miror, “I marvel,” was widely used in classical literature in describing any event that gave rise to this reaction, but the main word used both in Scripture and in the writings of the early church fathers was signa, “a sign,” stressing theological meaning rather than psychological reaction. For the early church there is only one miracle, that of creation, with its corollary of re-creation by the resurrection of Christ. God, they held, created the world out of nothing in six days, and within that initial creation he planted all the possibilities for the future. All creation was, therefore, both “natural” and “miraculous.” Everyday events—the birth of children, the growth of plants, rainfall—were all “daily miracles,” signs of the mysterious creative power of God at work in the universe. But it was always possible that people would become so accustomed to these daily miracles that they would no longer be moved to awe by them and would need to be provoked to reverence by unusual manifestations of God’s power. Such events were also within the original creation, hidden within the nature and appearance of things, which at times caused “miracles” that seemed to be contrary to nature but were in fact inherent in it. The most usual channel for these “hidden causes” to be made manifest was the prayers of the saints, living and dead, through whom the re-creating work of Christ was revealed. Events happened in nature or miraculously, but both were equally the work of God.
To pose only the question “How does this happen?” to any event need not exclude the older question “Why does this happen, what does it mean?” The “why” and the “how” questions about miracles can be equally useful. Miracles and nature were for centuries put on an equal footing as signs from God to man. However, in the twelfth century a distinction was found possible in the relationship between miracles and events of other kinds. While miracles were an accepted way in which Christians were in touch with the supernatural, other modes of supernatural contact to some extent were distinguished from miracles. Most of all, a distinction was made between miracle and magic. The “arts of magic” were consistently forbidden in the Christian church as being a manipulation and distortion of creation by mankind. Edicts of church councils and disciplinary directions in penitentials alike forbade magical practices to Christians throughout the Middle Ages. The church’s teachings on magic did not change, nor did the disregard for those teachings at a popular level decrease. In fact, in the twelfth century the revival of learning, and the interest in how things happened rather than why, led to an increase in the amount of magic practiced, and discussion of the question of the mechanics of events began to predominate over the question of their significance.
Modern-day miracles are often connected with the saints, those who are thought to have most clearly embodied the love and power of God in their lives. Miracles are recognized as signs that God is able to work uniquely through those nearest to Him in charity, especially in healing sickness; such signs of this work of God will be seen both in the lives of saints and also after their deaths. This view is connected with the theology of Christ as the Second Adam, re-creating all the world in a redeemed form so that a new relationship is set up between redeemed humanity and God’s mercy. Such a perspective is often seen in the stories about the new relationship of love and respect between the saints and the four elements of air, earth, fire, and water; the life of plants, animals and birds, as well as humans, were then seen to be miracles in both senses of the word. Miracles can then be understood as both natural and significant, as a normal part of redeemed creation.
SEE ALSO Roman Catholic Church
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cavadini, John C., ed. 1999. Miracles in Jewish and Christian Antiquity: Imagining Truth. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Chenu, M. D. 1968. Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century. Eds. and trans. Jerome Taylor and Lester K. Little. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lewis, C. S. 1950. Miracles: A Preliminary Study. London: Geoffrey Bles.
Ward, Benedicta. 1982. Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record, and Event, 1000–1215. London: Scholar Press.
Benedicta Ward