Contents
Contents Volume 1
Acknowledgments xv
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1 • The Origin of This Book • The Subjects of This Book • Limitations • The Problem • Closing Comments Part 1: The Ancient Evidence 19
1. Opening Questions about Early Christian Miracle Claims 21 • Evidence for Jesus's Miracles • Miracle Claims for Jesus's Early Movement
• Methodological Questions
2. Ancient Miracle Claims outside Christianity 35 • Gentile Greco-Roman Miracle Accounts - Healing Sanctuaries - Pagan Miracle Workers • Early Jewish Miracle Workers • An Authenticating Function of Miracles
• Conclusion vii
viii Contents
3. Comparison of Early Christian and Other Ancient Miracle Accounts 66 • Differences between Early Christian and Most Pagan Miracles
• Comparison of Early Christian and Jewish Miracle Accounts - Rabbinic Miracles - Eve's Detailed Comparisons • Parallels and the Authenticity Question
- Healing Sages?
- The Supernatural Element Not a Sufficient Parallel - Celestial Prodigies • Conclusion Part 2: Are Miracles Possible? 83
4. Antisupernaturalism as an Authenticity Criterion? 85
• Ancient Skepticism toward Miracles - Polybius's Critique of Sensationalist Historians
- Signs in Critical Historians - Ancient Plausibility Structures • Modern Western Skepticism toward Supernatural Phenomena
- Our Cultural Limitations - Have We Privileged a Particular Western Worldview?
• Conclusion
5. Hume and the Philosophic Questions 107 • What This Chapter Will Address • The Nature of the Questions • Hume's Argument from Nature - Hume and the Philosophy of Science - Does Science Pronounce on Theology?
- Hume, Violations of Natural Law, and Theism - Nature versus Hume - Hume's Antitheistic Starting Assumptions
• Hume's Epistemology regarding Miracles - Hume on Testimony - Consequences of Such Epistemic Demands for Other Disciplines
- Hume versus Normal Logic regarding Witnesses - Rejecting Unusual and Rare Events?
- The Theistic Factor - The Circularity of Hume's Approach - Other Noninductive Elements in Hume's Approach
• Hume's Critics • Conclusion
6. Developing Hume's Skepticism toward Miracles 171 • Consequences and Problems of the Humean Consensus
- Effects in Philosophy - Effects in Religion and Theology - A Sound Approach?
- God Acting in the Natural World?
Contents ix - God Acting in History?
- History and Theory - The Religious Factor - Incompatible Religions Claim Miracles?
- Disbelief in Miracles as a Dogmatic Assumption?
• The Shift in the Western Worldview - A Shift among Scholars - Do Modern People Believe in Miracles?
• Conclusion Part 3: Miracle Accounts beyond Antiquity 209
7. Majority World Perspectives 211 • Multicultural Miracle Claims and Ethnocentric Prejudices
- A Multicultural Approach - Cross-Cultural Readings - Ethnocentric Objections to Miracles - Hume's Explicit Ethnocentrism • Majority World Voices - Learning from Other Cultures - Widespread Pentecostal Claims in the Majority World
- Such Claims Not Limited to Pentecostals • Limitations in My Approach - Studies of Extraordinary Claims in Non-Christian Movements
- Limitations of Reports - The Use of Examples - Diverse Christian Supernatural Claims - One Theological Caveat • Conclusion
8. Examples from Asia 264 • Limitations of My Examples • The Philippines • Southeast Asia • South Asia - India - Interviews with Some Indian Ministers - Sri Lanka and Nepal • Indonesia • South Korea • The Pacific • Healings and China - Examples - Answering More Skeptical Perspectives - Visiting Some Chinese Pastors - One Example in 1930s China • Conclusion
x Contents
9. Examples from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean 309 • Examples in Africa - Healing in Mainline Churches - Various Sample Claims from East and Central Africa
- Various Sample Claims from West and Southern Africa - Examples in Nigeria - Examples in Mozambique - Congolese Evangelists - Papa Jacques's Experiences - Mama Jeanne and Others • Examples in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Various Cases from South America - Accounts from Cuba - Various Other Latin American and Caribbean Examples
- Ecuador - Chile • Conclusion
10. Supernaturalism in Earlier Christian History 359 • Perspectives from the Premodern World - The Patristic Era - The Medieval Period - The Reformers' Reaction • Perspectives from the Earlier Modern West
- Polemic against Miracles - Protestant Healing Reports in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- Lourdes and Roman Catholic Healing in the Nineteenth Century - Protestant Healing in the Nineteenth Century
- Criticisms and Moderation - Gender and Healings • Supernaturalist Christian Claims in the Early Twentieth-Century West
- Dorothy Kerin - James Moore Hickson - Healings in Other Traditional Churches - Early Pentecostalism - Early Pentecostal Testimonies - Early Pentecostal Figures • Conclusion
11. Supernatural Claims in the Recent West 426 • Claims Are Now Common • Samples of Individual Healing Reports - One Modern Healing Narrative - Scientists, Journalists, and Doctors - Pentecostals and Other Churches - Examples from Interviews in My Circle - Anna's and Cindy's Stories - Accounts from Students and Colleagues - Yesenia's Story
Contents xi • Some Other Individual Healing Claims • Western Healing Ministries in the Past Half Century
- Why Include Such Accounts?
- T. L. Osborn - Kathryn Kuhlman - Doctors and Kuhlman - Father Ralph DiOrio - Some Less-Conspicuous Ministries • Various Examples from Roman Catholic Sources
• Third Wave and Other Recent Sources Emphasizing Healing - Examples from the Vineyard Movement - Global Awakening and New Wine - Examples from Some Charismatic/Third Wave Churches
• Listing Some Further Claims • Conclusion
12. Blindness, Inability to Walk, Death, and Nature: Some Dramatic Reports 508 • Why This Chapter's Focus?
• Healing of Blindness - Healings of Blindness in History - Contemporary Reports of Healings of Blindness in Africa
- Contemporary Reports of Healings of Blindness in Asia - Contemporary Reports of Healings of Blindness in Latin America and the West
• Healing of Those Unable to Walk - Earlier Reports - Contemporary Reports of Healings in Africa and Asia
- Contemporary Reports of Healings in the Western Hemisphere • Raising the Dead - Biblical and Non-Christian Accounts - Alternative Explanations?
- Earlier Accounts - Raising Accounts in Africa - Raising of My Wife's Sister - Mama Jeanne's Accounts - Other Accounts from Congo - Raising Accounts in Asia - Raising Accounts in the Philippines - Raising Accounts in Latin America and the West
- Reports from Physicians • Nature Miracles - Limits of Naturalistic Explanations - Limits of Ancient Analogies - Subsequent Analogies - Recent Analogies in Asia and the Pacific
- Recent Analogies in Africa - Accounts in the Western Hemisphere • Conclusion
xii Contents Volume 2 Part 4: Proposed Explanations 601
13. Nonsupernatural Causes 603 • Epistemological Premises - Epistemic Agnosticism - Genuine Anomalies - The Demand for Analogies • Introducing Nonsupernatural Causes - Fraud - Emotional Arousal • The Power of Faith - Religious Practice and Health - Factors in Healthy Religious Practice - Psychosomatic Elements of Faith Cures - Psychosomatic Elements in Jesus's Ministry?
- The Placebo Effect - Religion and Psychological Elements in Healing • Conclusion
14. Biased Standards? 645
• Reductionism?
• A Historic Bias against Faith?
- The Biased Vancouver Study - Similar Past Critiques of Other Public Healing Claims
- Are Nonsupernatural Interpretations Always Better?
• The Demand for Medically Certified Testimony - Securing Medical Documentation - The Demand's Epistemological Premise - Use of Videotapes?
• How to Sort the Evidence - Critics of Lourdes - Rigorous Standards at Lourdes - Some Dramatic Cures at Lourdes - Rigorous Standards, Hostile Assumptions
• Prejudice in the Academy?
- Prejudice against Religion and Meteorites - Philosophic Assumptions behind Scientific Paradigms
- Uneven Criteria - Presuppositions and Burden of Proof • Other Complications • Conclusion
15. More Extranormal Cases 712 • Considering Medical Documentation - Some Medical Documentation - Implications of and Prospects for Medical Documentation
• Partial and Gradual Healings
Contents xiii • Some Scholars' Testimonies, Explanations - Philosophers' Interviews - Some Limited Eyewitness Experience - Closer Eyewitness Examples and Alternative Explanations
• Interpreting the Evidence - Is a Nontheistic Interpretation Necessary?
- Suprahuman Explanations?
- Dramatic Recoveries • Examples Nearer the Author • Conclusion
Conclusion 761
Concluding Unscientific Postscript 766
Appendix A: Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity 769 • Ancient Views of Demons - Daimones - Jewish Demonology • Possession • Prophylaxis against Demons • Exorcism
Appendix B: Spirit Possession and Exorcism in Societies Today 788 • Cross-Cultural Evidence for Possession Experiences
- Anthropological Reports of Possession Experiences - Cultural Elements of Possession Behavior
- Some Special Forms of Possession Behaviors - Spirits, Sickness, and Seers • Exorcism in Recent Times - Non-Christian Exorcism Practices - Christian Movements and Exorcisms - Perspectives on Exorcisms • Interpreting Spirit Possession - Natural Elements and Western Academic Explanations
- Diverse Approaches - Possession and Spirits - Western Psychiatrists and Belief in Genuine Spirits
• Missiologists on Power Encounters - Modern Examples of Power Encounters - Power Encounters That Persuade Religious Competitors
- Some Personal and Family Experiences • Conclusion
Appendix C: Comparisons with Later Christian Hagiography 857 • Methodological Questions • Various Tales • Another Example: Takla Hâymânôt • Conclusion
xiv Contents
Appendix D: Ancient Approaches to Natural Law 867
Appendix E: Visions and Dreams 870 • Ancient Dream Reports • Visions and Dreams in Global Christianity
Bibliography of Secondary Sources 885
Interviews and Personal Correspondence Cited 1051
Index of Subjects 1057
Index of Authors, Interviewees, and Correspondents 1097
Index of Scripture 1147
Index of Other Ancient Sources 1153