MIRACLE

extraordinary and astonishing happening that is attributed to the presence and action of an ultimate or divine power. an extraordinary and astonishing happening that is attributed to the presence and action of a supernatural or divine power. Belief in miraculous happenings occurs in all cultures and is a feature of practically all religions. Although members of nonliterate cultures lack a fully developed scientific conception of natural causalityand hence also the notion of a supernatural miraclethey know of extraordinary events, forces, and operations. These are integrated in various ways, such as by ritual, magic, or shamanism, with the more ordinary modes of behaviour. Similarly the religions of the ancient world (e.g., Babylonia and Egypt) had few formal miracles, precisely because certain kinds of divine action or cosmic operation (e.g., oracles) were accepted as part of the normal order of things. Ancient Indian mythology, like all mythologies, abounds in fantastic accounts of the doings of the gods, but the Upanisads and Brahmanas evince an increasing indifference to miracles. Like other expressions of higher mysticism, they consider the spiritual experience of religious insight and transformation as the only miracle worth talking about. Nevertheless Hindu popular religion sets no bounds to the miraculous powers of ascetic yogis, and India has become the classic land of wonders. There is little room for the miraculous element in Confucianism, but Taoism has produced a rich crop of thaumaturgy and magic on all levels of Chinese folk religion. Miracles are taken for granted throughout the Old Testament: God does wondrous things especially in the history of his people Israel (e.g., the ten plagues of Egypt). In the Greco-Roman world miracles were not uncommon; there were miraculous cures (e.g., at the sanctuary of Asclepius in Epidaurus), moving statues of gods, resurrections of the dead, virgin births, and the like, though philosophical criticism too was articulate: Cicero in the De divinatione denied the possibility of miracles. According to the earliest Buddhist accounts, Gautama Buddha deprecated the miraculous powers that he possessed as a matter of course, being the greatest of all yogis, as utterly devoid of spiritual significance. Nevertheless, miraculous accounts of his birth and life (and those of later Buddhist saints), as well as miracles in connection with his relics, proliferated as time went on, particularly in the Mah ayana tradition. The Christian New Testament records various miracles of healing and of providing abundantly for specific human needs performed by Jesus Christ, and miracles did not cease after the New Testament period. They form part of the career, in life as well as after death, of the Christian saints, and their occurrence continues (e.g., Lourdes); duly established miracles are among the requirements for a process of canonization. Muhammad was the only great founder who renounced miracles and miraculous powers as a matter of principlethe Qur'an was the great miraclebut subsequent hagiography invested his life with superlatively miraculous details. Muslim popular religion, particularly under Sufi influence, abounds in miracles, pilgrimages to the tombs of wonder-working saints, and the like. Additional reading Gustav Mensching, Das Wunder im Glauben und Aberglauben der Vlker (1957), the best and most complete treatment of the subject; Robert M. Grant, Miracle and Natural Law in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Thought (1952), a description of Hellenistic attitudes and beliefs. Benedicta Ward, Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record, and Events, 10001215 (1982), a study of the attitudes toward reports of miracles by the church and by other institutions.