Miracles

by Weddle, David L.

• ISBN13: 9780814794166
• ISBN10: 0814794165
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-19
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

Flying yogis, mind-reading rabbis, levitating monks, saints who converse with animals, healers who restore sight to the blind and make the lame walk. Miracles are signs whose meanings emerge from the specific cultural contexts and religious traditions in which they occur, yet across religions they serve as expressions of a common faith that the horizon of possibilities for human life is not restricted to closed systems of material forces. Despite the dominance of scientific explanation in the modern world, at the beginning of the twenty-first century faith in miracles remains strong, particularly in resurgent forms of traditional religion.InMiracles, David L. Weddle examines how five religious traditionsHinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islamunderstand miracles, considering how they express popular enthusiasm for wondrous tales, how they provoke official regulation because of their potential to disrupt authority, and how they are denied by critics within each tradition who regard belief in miracles as an illusory distraction from moral responsibility. In dynamic and accessible prose, Weddle shows us what miracles are, what they mean, and why, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, they are still significant today: belief in miracles sustains the hope that, if there is a reality that surpasses our ordinary lives, it is capable of exercisingfrom time to timecreative, liberating, enlightening, and healing power in our world.

Author Biography

David L. Weddle is the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Religion at Colorado College and the author of The Law as Gospel: Revival and Reform in the Theology of Charles G. Finney.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Preliminary Considerations	p. 1
Hinduism: Signs of Spiritual Liberation	p. 35
Judaism: Signs of Covenant	p. 71
Buddhism: Signs of Transcendent Wisdom	p. 105
Christianity: Signs of Divine Presence	p. 141
Islam: Signs of Divine Authority	p. 177
Afterword	p. 211
Notes	p. 215
Bibliography	p. 237
Index	p. 247
About the Author	p. 253
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