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Complete Dissertation VU Research Portal Miracles in the age of science Bersee, A.N.J.M. 2020 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Bersee, A. N. J. M. (2020). Miracles in the age of science: A philosophical analysis and evaluation of arguments used in the debate between science and Western theology. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT Miracles in the age of science: A philosophical analysis and evaluation of arguments used in the debate between science and Western theology ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor of Philosophy aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. V. Subramaniam, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit Religie en Theologie op woensdag 25 maart 2020 om 13.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Anthonius Nicolaas Johannes Maria Bersee geboren te Bloemendaal promotoren: prof.dr. W.L. van der Merwe prof.dr. D.M.K.H. Grube Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Research question and the aim of the project 3 1.2 An overview of intended chapters 7 Chapter 2 Arguments against the occurrence of miracles 2.1 Spinoza’s radical rationalism 2.1.1 ‘Natural law’ as a necessarily true proposition 9 2.1.2 The argument of the impossibility of miracles 14 2.1.3 A rational clarification of Joshua stopping the sun 20 2.1.4 Salvation as Spinoza’s scope 22 2.2 Hume’s empirical enterprise 2.2.1 Spinoza and Hume: away from safe Newtonianism 24 2.2.2 Miracles not impossible, but extremely improbable 26 2.2.3 Understanding ‘Of miracles’: the principal argument 28 2.2.4 Calculated contributions using Bayes’ Theorem 31 2.2.5 Understanding ‘Of miracles’: particular arguments 34 2.3 The critique of the New Atheists 2.3.1 The swift soar of New Atheism 36 2.3.2 The call for a New Enlightenment 38 2.3.3 Specific criticisms of the ‘four horsemen’ of New Atheism 40 Chapter 3 Main types of arguments in favour of miracles in Western theology 3.1 The Roman Catholic traditional argument: Miracles as ‘facta divina’ 3.1.1 Vatican Councils’ classical case 49 3.1.2 Canonisation and the role of the physician 57 3.2 Rudolf Bultmann: Miracles as self-understanding 3.2.1 From liberal to dialectical theology 60 3.2.2 Tales of miracles demythologised 64 3.2.3 The only miracle of God’s mercy 66 3.2.4 Sermon on the miraculous catch of fish 69 3.3 Karl Barth: Miracles as God’s self-revelation 4.3.1 Dealing with Bultmann’s dialectics 71 4.3.2 Hermeneutics and the secret of the incarnation 74 4.3.3 The argument of miracle as a sign of God’s revelation 75 3.4 Richard Swinburne: Miracles as ‘non-repeatable counterinstances’ 3.4.1 The Anglo-Saxon resurrection of natural theology 78 3.4.2 Weighing the evidence in theistic theory 81 3.4.3 The argument of the rationality of God-caused miracles 84 3.5 Karl Heim: Miracles enshrined in modern physics 3.5.1 The reasonableness of faith in the advance of science 86 3.5.2 Identifying a miracle as an act of God 89 3.6 William Lane Craig: Miracles defended from biblical testimonies 3.6.1 God’s acts as non-violations of natural laws 90 3.6.2 The God-hypothesis as an explicatory model 95 1 3.7 Alister McGrath: Miracles as ‘revelatory events’ 3.7.1 The urgent necessity of an engagement between science and theology 97 3.7.2 Miracles as inexplicable ‘revelatory events’ 100 Chapter 4 An evaluation of arguments against miracles 4.1 Spinoza 102 4.2 Hume 108 4.3 New Atheists 116 4.4 On the current scientific evidence for miracles 122 Chapter 5 An evaluation of arguments in favour of miracles 5.1 The Roman Catholic Church 126 5.2 Bultmann 135 5.3 Barth 140 5.4 Swinburne 143 5.5 Heim 148 5.6 Craig 151 5.7 McGrath 154 Chapter 6 Arguing for a hermeneutical approach to miracles 158 6.1 On the focus of ‘evidence’ in the current debate on miracles 160 6.2 Arguing for a hermeneutical approach of miracle narratives 163 6.2.1 The religious language of miracle narratives 164 6.2.2 Miracle stories signify the presence of a transcendent power 171 6.2.3 The hermeneutical horizon of the biblical writers 176 6.2.4 On the methodology of reading ancient miracle narratives 182 6.2.5 Miracles in science and Western theology: from conflict to congruity 184 6.3 Answering some critical questions on the hermeneutical proposal 6.3.1 Can an approach which does not focus on the factuality or historicity of miracles, particularly Christ’s resurrection, still be called ‘Christian’? 191 6.3.2 Is the final outcome of this approach that emphasises ‘self-understanding’ not ‘subjectivity’? 195 6.3.3 Is a hermeneutical approach to miracles not just another form of liberal theology in which the problem of theodicy is reduced to merely an ethical call addressed to Man? 201 Summary 206 Bibliography 209 2 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Research question and the aim of the project Miracle stories are an important part of nearly all religious traditions.1 They are believed to have taken place in history, and religions rely heavily on their existence. For example, in the Shrimad Bhagavad Purana, one of the eighteen great Puranas (dharmic texts), we can read about Krishna’s miraculous circle dance in which he manifests copies of himself, enabling him to dance with 16,000 girls (gopis), each one thinking that Krishna is dancing only with her.2 In Islam many miracles are recorded in the Qur’an, which itself is said to be the greatest of miracles, being of such beauty that no ordinary human poet could have created such a text: This Qur’an is not such (a writ) as could be composed by anyone but God. It confirms what has been revealed before, and is an exposition of (Heaven’s) law. Without any doubt, it’s from the Lord of all the worlds.3 The importance of miracle stories also applies to the Christian religion to which I intend to limit myself in this study. The Gospels record thirty-five miracles that Jesus is said to have performed, including twenty-three miraculous healings and nine nature miracles (for example walking on water, stilling a storm, multiplying food, and turning water into wine), and even three occasions on which Jesus brought the dead back to life. At the heart of Christian convictions lies the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in which he was raised from the dead to an eternal life of glory in the heavens. Paul writes about the crucial importance of the resurrection for Christian faith: But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.4 1 A generally warranted definition of ‘religion’ is not agreed upon in scholarly literature. To get an impression of the complexity and diversity of the concept, see for example Harrison, P. (1990). ‘Religion’ and the religions in the English Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Masuzawa, T. (1993). In search of dreamtime: The quest for the origin of religion. Chicago: Chicago University Press; Pals, D.L. (1996). Seven theories of religion. New York: Oxford University Press; Preus, S.J. (1987). Explaining religion: Criticism and theory from Bodin to Freud. New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press; Clarke, P.B. and Byrne, P. (1993). Religion defined and explained. New York: St. Martin’s Press, pp. 3-27. 2 For an example of a story of this so-called rasa lila dance see http://vrindavan.de/rasadance.htm. 3 Translation by Ahmed Ali (from http://www.alquranverse.com/10/37/Yusuf_Ali). 4 1 Cor. 15:12-14. In this study most quotations from the Bible are from the New International Version-UK (NIVUK). 3 The subject of miracles is regularly discussed in the debate between science5 and Western theology. It takes place in the wider sphere of what is sometimes depicted as a conflict between, on the one hand, scientific research and, on the other, faith and religion, more specifically Christian theology. Maybe the most familiar of these presumed conflicts is the creation versus evolution debate, also called the ‘1860 Oxford evolution debate’ which took place seven months after the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859).
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