Re: MD Access to Quality

From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk)
Date: Mon Apr 25 2005 - 12:22:59 BST

  • Next message: Arlo J. Bensinger: "Re: MD Access to Quality"

    Hi Scott,

    One of my rare quibbles with something you say.

    > Scott:
    > A miracle is a supernatural interruption of the natural order.

    That's a modern understanding of what a miracle is. It depends upon the
    Newtonian understanding of the universe as a mechanism, and that there is
    therefore something to be 'interrupted'. Before the scientific revolution
    the understanding of the supernatural was a little different. The opposition
    wasn't between (natural = scientifically caused) and (supernatural = divine
    cause) but between (natural = sinful) and (supernatural = grace). So, to use
    a modern example, the way in which Nelson Mandela enabled South Africa to
    move away from apartheid without (much) violence is an example of a
    supernatural event, a miracle, in the classical way of looking at it.

    Language of 'intervention' only makes sense if you have the conception of
    separation between creator and created order. If that is denied (which it
    is, in practice, in traditional Christian understandings) then you don't
    have an understanding of miracles as 'interruptions'.

    Regards
    Sam

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