Miracles

Question 1

Essay Opening Quote - Tillich, Systematic Theology 1953

Answer 1

‘… An event which is astonishing, unusual, shaking, without contradicting the rational structure of reality… An event which points to the mystery of being.’

Question 2

What is a miracle?

Answer 2

Divine act of God that have no other explanation

Question 3

They are a type of…

Answer 3

Religious Experience

Question 4

For a miracle to be classed as a miracle it must…

Answer 4

Be against regular experience, must break the law of nature and the event must have significance or purpose.

Question 5

Thomas Aquinas referred to miracles as…

Answer 5

‘Those things which are done by divine power apart from the order generally followed by things’

Question 6

Aquinas claimed that there were three types of miracle:

Answer 6

• Events done by God, which nature could never do. EG: Joshua 10:13 - The sun being stopped.
• Events done by God, which nature could do, but not in that order.
• Events done by God, which nature can do, but God does without the use of natural laws

Question 7

To be a miracle, an act must:

Answer 7

• Break a natural law
• Have a clear purpose and significance
• Be best explained as an act of God

Question 8

Aquinas said that God was an…

Answer 8

Interventionalist

Question 9

Coincidences

Answer 9

R.F Holland - ‘coincidence… Taken religiously as a sign and called a miracle’

Holland uses the example of the boy on the railway track, the train miraculously stops and the boy lives.

Question 10

Biblical miracles

Answer 10

Miracles of Jesus

Miracles in Bible may be myths - stories

Question 11

Swinburne claimed…

Answer 11

That the best explanation for an event is that it is a miracle