miracle reports and the argument from analogy · cently, however, gerd theissen and others have...

Bulletinfor Biblical Research 25.4 (2015) 475 4 9 5

Miracle Reports and the Argument from Analogy

CRAIG S. KEENERASBURY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Traditionally, scholars used the argument from historical analogy to deny the historical reliability of extraordinary miracle claims in the Gospels, claims such as visible healings, instant cures ofblindness or inability to walk, resuscitations from death, and nature miracles. In view ofa wide body ofglobal reports available today, the analogy argument instead supports the historical plausibility of eyewitness reports ofthese experiences.

Key Words: miracle reports, miracle stories, argumentfrom analogy, blind, blindness, raising the dead, nature miracles, Blumhardt, Bultmann

Potential modern analogies for miracle reports in the Gospels may he em- ployed in various ways, but the focus here is to chahenge the conventional argument from analogy used against the historical reliability of the ancient claims.1 The ancient sources about Jesus unanimously support these claims, and modern analogies allow us to treat this evidence as credible, in contrast to the more skeptical approach of scholars such as Strauss and Bultmann. Many experiences have been significant enough to convince those not starting with Christian assumptions; others have included visible physical changes and the sorts of dramatic experiences sometimes reported in the Gospels that are not easily explained in purely psychosomatic terms (including resuscitations and nature miracles).

Although these analogies prove neither the ancient accounts nor that divine activity stands behind them, they should remove the a priori

1. This article is based on my paper presented at the meeting o£ the Institute £٠٢ Bibli- cal Research, November 21, 2014.1 am grate£ul to Pro£s. Darrell L·. Bock and Robert L. Webb for their responses; I remain responsible for errors that remain. I o£fered a similar plenary address ("Miracle Reports in the Gospels and Today") at ״special Divine Action," the 2014 coherence for the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, Oxford University, July 14, 2014. For related discussions, see my "Miracle R e^rts: ?ers^ctives. Analogies, Explanations," in Hermeneutik der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen: Historiche, literarische und rezeptimsästhe- tische Aspekte (ed. Bernd Kollmann und Rüben Zimmermann; WUNT 339; Tübingen: Mohr Sie- beck, 2014); idem, "Cultural Comparisons £٠٢ Healing and Exorcism Narratives in Matthew's Gospel," HTS Theological Studies 66 (2010).

Bulletinfor Biblical Research 25.4476

prejudice that the G©spel traditions about healings and nature miracles cannot ultimately reflect genuine eyewitness experience.

P o t e n t ia l C o n t r ib u t io n s o f A n a l o g ie s

Given limited space, this article cannot address the philosophic and theological question whether we should interpret some miracle claims as genu- inely divine or superhuman action. Although from a theistic framework many of the examples in this article would be viewed as miraculous, historically focused scholars debate the extent to which this question may be addressed within a purely historiographic framework.21 thus address only briefly, and confíne primarily to the third point of this introductory sec- tion, possible implications of this research for philosophic and theological exploration.3

Here, 1 offer instead a very modest challenge to a major traditional argument against the historical reliability of biblical miracle accounts, namely, the argument from analogy.4 People today, and presumably also in antiquity, have extraordinary experiences analogous to the most-often- dismissed experiences reported in the Gospels and Acts, however we ex- plain the causes of those experiences. By "analogous," 1 refer to the criterion that has often been used to dismiss as genuine experiences biblical accounts of miracles: experiences such as sudden healings of blindness or raisings from the dead do not occur and therefore have never occurred.

This challenge may contribute to biblical studies in several ways. First, and the area on which this article focuses: the challenge calls into question

2 For various views on (or related to) whether historians should adjudicate o rac le claims (not mcludmg the vast related literature m philosophy), see, e g , Aviezer Tucker, "Miracles, Historical Testimonies, and Frobabilities," History س Theory 44 (2005) 373-90, Brad s Gregory, "The Other Confessional History On Secular Bias m the Study of Religion," History and Theory 45 (2006) 132-49, Tor Egli Forland, "Historiography without God A Reply to Gregory," History and Theory 47 (2008) 520-32, Robert L Webb, "The Historical Enterprise and Historical Jesus Research," m Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus A Collaborative Exploration of Context and Coherence (ed Darrell L Bock and Robert L Webb, Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 2010) 39-54, Michael R LiconaandJanG van der Watf, "Historians and Miracles The Principle of Analogy and Antecedent Frobabihty Reconsidered," HTS Theological Studies 65 (2009), idem, "The Adju- dication of Miracles Rethinking the Criteria of Historicity," HTS Theological Studies 65 (2009), Michael R Licona, "Historians and Miracle Claims," Joumalfor the Study of the Historical Jesus 12 (2014) 106-29, now also Graham H Twelftree, "The Historian and the Miraculous," plenary address at Oxford's "Special Divine Action" conference, July 13, 2014

3 I address biblical and philosophic theologies of miracles, issues that differ from foe focus of this essay, m, respectively, "Miracles," m The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and The- ology (ed Samuel E Ballentme et a l , 2 vols, Oxford Oxford University Press, 2015) 2 101-7, and "Miracles," Dictionary of Christianity and Science (ed Paul Copan et a l, Grand Rapids Zondervan, forthcoming)

4 That the argument IS modest must be emphasized, because modern experiences do not demonstrate the authenticity of ancient analogues, they do, however, refute the argument, based on the alleged modem nonoccurrence of these experiences, against ancient analogues Although modest, my argument remains necessary because of the influence of foe argument it counters

K e e n e r : Miracle Reports and the Argumentfrom Analogy 477

the assumption م £ some scholars that the most dramatic healings reported in the Gospels must reflect late, legendary accretions rather than allowing that much of this material could he genuine information ultimately derived from eyewitnesses.

Traditionally, writers used the argum ent from historical analogy against the credibility of many early Christian healing claims; more recently, however, Gerd Theissen and others have shown that the argument from analogy actually suggests the contrary.5 Against some traditional Western critical assumptions, millions of eyewrtnesses do offer claims com- parable to those in the Gospels, however we evaluate them. If these claims can be credibly offered in the 21st century, we lack reason to assume that witnesses could not have offered them in the 1st.

Second, those interested in global readings, including myself, may learn from the way that many Christians in the Majority World read these accounts.6 As Yale's Lamin Sanneh points out, through the Majority World western culture "can encounter . . ٠ the gospel as it is being embraced by societies that had not been shaped by the Enlightenment" and are thus closer to the milieu of earliest Christianity.7 In contrast to our typical Western penchant for allegorizing the accounts for exclusively spiritual meanings5 or viewing them as embarrassments, many Christians globally find in these accounts encouragement for faith and sometimes even models for ministry.؟

One need not treat these readings as normative to recognize where they challenge our own exegetical blind spots. As to which approach may be closer to the setting of earliest Christianity, we might consider how testimonies functioned elsewhere in antiquity. Surely healing claims posted in Asclepius's sanctuaries, for example, were not designed solely to satisfy historical interest; instead they invited trust in the god's power. ! ٥

5 E g , Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical ]esas A Comprehensive Guide (Minneapnlis Fortress, 1998) 310, also Walter Wink, "Write What You See," Fourth R 7 (1994) 3-9 (here, p 6), David A deSilva, "The Meaning o£ the New Testament and the Skandalon of World Construetions," EvQ 64 (1992) 3-21 (here, pp 16-17) Some late 19th- and early 20th- eentury thinkers already made similar observations, see Robert Bruce Mullin, Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination (New Haven, CT Yale University Fress, 1996) 185-86, 219

6 This interest has birthed a range of scholarship today, from within 1BR itself, see, e g , the contributions m Craig s Keener and Darnel Carroll R , eds, Global Voices Readingsfrom the Majority World (Feabody, MA Hendrickson, 2013)

7 Lamm Sanneh, Whose Religion Is Christianity7 The Gospel beyond the West (Grand Rap- ids Eerdmans, 2003) 26

8 1 certainly recognize that the Gospel writers themselves also apply lessons from Je- sus's healings to wider aspects of his mission (see, e g , Mark 2 10, 17, Matt 8 17, Craig s Keener, The Gospel ofMatthew A Socio-rhetoncal Commentary [Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 2009] 273, 290-91, 298) But denymg their physical dimension essentially allegorizes the narratives

9 Cf Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom The Coming of Global Christianity (New York Oxford University Press, 2002) 122-31

10 On these sanctuaries, see, e g , my Acts An Exegetical Commentary (4 vols, Grand Rapids Baker Academic, 2012-15) 1 326-29, Enno Edzard Fopkes, "Antikes Medizinwesen und antike Therapieformen,״ m Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzahlungen, vol 1 Die Wunder Jesu (ed Rüben Zimmermann, Munich Gütersloh, 2013) 79-82


Third, those interested in reading the accounts as Scripture may ex- piore the theological dimension of such claims. We may discuss historical analogies without debating their causation: in fact, psychoimmunology shows that attitudes can affect recovery; many other recoveries reflect misdiagnosis, fraud, or various natural causes. Nevertheless, if one does not a priori exclude theistic explanations—that is, if one does not pre- suppose atheism or ^ ism -p h ilo so p h e rs often find theistic explanations compatible with other explanations and sometimes more compelling than the alternatives.!! Much of the common m odem academic assumption that miracles are impossible rests on David Hume's essay O n M iracles,12 the cogency of which is often challenged today among philosophers. ! -Phil وosophic theologians and philosophers of religion might use some of the following reports to challenge Hume's starting assumption that credible eyewitnesses do not report miracles, further weakening the traditional argument against miracles.

This article's focus, however, is the first point. I address here primarily the question of historical analogy rather than the metahistorical question of explanations, valuable as that quest may be. Historians often confront healing claims, whether or not they wade into the area of extrabiological explanations. Thus, Yale historian Ramsay MacMullen emphasizes that, "to doubt [witnesses'] account of what they s a w - to doubt that [the West African prophet William Wadé] Harris, or any saint, or Jesus himself" performed miracles, is theological interpretation, "good or bad."!* With the healings attributed to Jesus and early Christians, MacMullen and other scholars have compared healing claims surrounding more recent figures.15

11. E.g., c. Stephen Evans, The Historical Christ and thejesus ofFaith: The Incamational Nar- rative وه History (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996) 137-202; Keith Ward, "Believing in Miracles," Zygon 37 (2002) 741-50; H e n d r ik van der Breggen, "Miracle Reports, Moral Philosophy, and Contem- porary Science" (Ph.D. dlss.. University of Waterloo, 2004); Robert A. Larmer, The Legitimacy ٠/ Miracle (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2014).

12. David Hume, O f Miracles (introduction by Antony Flew; La Salle, 1L: open Court, 1985) 31 (following Deist arguments and opposing earlier empiricists; see Robert M. Bums, The Great Debate on Miracles: From Joseph Glanvill ؛٠ David Hume [London: Associated University Presses; Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1981J 51, 77).

13. See, e.g., Richard Swinburne, The Concept of Miracle (London: Macmillan, 1970); j. Houston, Reported Miracles: A Critique of Hume (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Evans, Historical Christ, 153-54; David Johnson, Hume, Holism, and Miracles (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999); Jolm Earman, Hume's Abject Failure: The Argument against Mir- acles (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

14. Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire (New Haven, CT: Yale Unlver- sity Press, 1984) 24. Likewise, some sociologists of religion contend that sociologists can report their subjects' miracle claims but cannot as sociologists mle on foe possibility of the subjects' claims of supernatural activity (Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamorl, Global Pentecostal- ism: The New Face ofChristian Social Engagement [Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007] 153; cf. p. 104).

15. MacMullen, Christianizing, 7; John Ashton, The Religion ofPaul the Apostle (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000) 32-40; Eric Eve, The Jewish Context of Jesus'Miracles (JSNTSup 231; London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002) 357-59; Pieter F. Craffert, "Crossan's Historical Jesus as Healer, Exorcist, and Miracle Worker," Religion and Theology 10 (2003) ^43-66; Michael j. McClymond, Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus ofNazareth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,

K ee n e r : Miracle Reports and the Argumentfrom Analogy 479

Analogies take us only so far in terms of historical inquiry, given the i^osyncrasies of distinct historical figures, but they do support the plausibility of the other evidence we have about Jesus as a healer.

A n c ie n t So u r c e s a b o u t Je su s

Healing and exorcism accounts comprise perhaps one-third of Mark's Gospel, which the majority of scholars today consider the earliest extant Gospel,^ yet they are also a major reason for many traditional critics sus- pecting the reliability of much of the gospel tradition. Despite a range of explanations for the experiences, however, most historical-Jesus scholars today rightly affirm that Jesus' contemporaries experienced him as a healer.^ As Bart Ehrman notes, scholars can recognize Jesus as an exorcist and healer without passing judgment on whether he acted supematurally.18

Virtually all substantial ancient sources about Jesus, including those from his detractors, recognize that his contemporaries experienced him as a healer. This is true of all the layers most often postulated in the gospel tradition: Mark, Q, John, special M, and special L.19 Josephus probably

2004) 83; Todd Klutz, The Exorcism Stories in Luke-Acts: A Sociostylistic Reading (SNTSMS 129; Cambridge: Cambridge University Eress, 2004) 196-97.

16. William c. ?lâcher, Mark (Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible; Eouisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2010) 76; cf. G. j. van Wyk and Francois p. Viljoen, "Benaderings tot die interpretasie van die wonderverhale in Markus 8-10/' In die Skriflig 43 (2009) 879-94; Eric Eve, The Healerfrom Nazareth: Jesus' Miracles in Historical Context (^ndon: S?CK, 2009) 118-19.

17. For summaries of this consensus, see Barry L. Blackburn, "The Miracles of Jesus," in Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the state of Current Research (ed. Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans; NTTS 19; Eeiden: Brill, 1994) 353-94, esp. p. 362; Stevan L. Davies, Jesus the Healer: Possession, Trance, and the Origins of Christianity (New York: Continuum, 1995) 44; Eve, Miracles, 16-17; James D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered (Christianity in the Making 1; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003) 670; Joel B. Green, "Healing," in The New Interpreter's Dictionary ofthe Bible (5 vols.; Nashville: Abingdon, 2007) 2:758; Arland j. Hultgren, "The Miracle Stories in the Gos^ls: The Continuing Challenge for Interpreters," ww 29 (2009) 129-35 (here, pp. س35 ); Licona and van der Watt, "Historians and Miracles," 2; Graham H. Twelftree, "The Message of Jesus 1: Miracles, Continuing Controversies," in Handbookfor the Study ofthe Historical Jesus (ed. Tom Holmen and Stanley E. ?orter; 4 vols.; Eeiden: Brill, 2010) 2518-19; for examples, see Otto Betz, What Do We Know about Jesus? (Philadelphia: Westminster; Eondon: SCM, 1968) 58-60; Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician (San Francisco: Harper ه Row, 1978) 16; E. p. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985) 11; John p. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol. 2: Mentor, Message, and Miracles (New York: Doubleday, 1994) 2:61745, 678-772; Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to Grave. A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels (2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1994) 14344; Theis- sen and Merz, Guide, 113, 281-315; Graham H. Twelftree, Jesus the Miracle Worker: A Historical and Theological study (Downers Grove, IE: InterVarsity, 1999); Craig L. Blomberg, The Historical Reliability ofthe Gospels (2nd ed.; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008) 127-36.

18. Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet ofthe New Millennium (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) 197-200.

19. With, e.g., Franz Mussner, TheMiracles of Jesus: An Introduction (trans. Albert Wimmer; Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968) 19-22; Leopold Sabourin, The Divine Miracles Discussed and Defended (Rome: Officium Eibri Catholici, 1977) 69; Christopher Row- land, Christian Origins: From Messianic Movement to Christian Religion (Minneapolis: Augsburg; London, SPCK, 1985) 146-47.


views }esus partly in these te rm s .L a te r rabbis and the pagan thinker Celsus acknowledge that lesus performed healings but attribute them to sorcery.21 Compared to most other accounts of healers from antiquity (as opposed to healing shrines), the earliest reports are remarkably close in time to the events rep o rted -m an y from within a generation.22

Some multiply-attested reports of his activity appear particularly dramatic, including healing blindness, resuscitating some dead persons, and on rare occasions what m odem scholars call nature miracles.

St r a u s s a n d Bu l t m a n n

David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874) rightly reacted against the implausible naturalistic explanations of Jesus's miracles offered in some earlier studies about Jesus, such as Jesus's secret Essene medicaments. 2 ,Strauss did not تhowever, question the radical Enlightenment's rejection of special divine action on which such explanations were b a s e d .^ Strauss came up with a naturalistic explanation more critically plausible than the strained hypoth- eses of his predecessors: namely, that our primary sources, the Gospels, were late and unreliable, reporting myths and legends that developed over a period of several g e n e r a t i o n s .Few scholars today would attempt to date the Gospels as late as did Strauss, but some still regard Jesus' dramatic miracles as reflecting mostly legendary developments.

Strauss's own friend Edward Mörike, virtually unable to walk, found himself cured after visiting the Lutheran pastor Johann Christoph Blum- hardt, who was known for a ministry of healing and deliverance. Not sur-

20 ?٠٢ Josephus, see Ant 18 63, Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew A Historian's Reading ٠/ the Gospels (Phriadelphia F^tress, 1973) 79, idem, "The Jesus Notice of^sephus Re-examined," JJS 38 (1987) 1-10, see also Meier, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, 2 621, Theissen and Merz, Guide, 74

21 See discussions in, e g , Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, 166, Edwin M Yamauchi, "Magic or Miracle? Diseases, Demons, and Exorcisms," m The Miracles ofjesus (ed David Wenham and Craig Blomberg, Gospel Ferspectives 6, Sheffield JSOT Fress, 1986) 90-91, John Granger Cook, The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism (Feabody, MA Hendrickson, 2002) 36-39,138 Other dramatic works appear m Faul's depiction of and appeal to eyewitness experience of his own ministry (Rom 15 19, 2 Cor 12 12) m Revelation (Rev 11 5-6), and the expectation of heahng m James (Jas 5 14-15)

22 See Meier, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, 576-616 and esp p 624, Craig s Keener, Miracles The Credibility ofthe New Testament Accounts (2 vols, Grand Rapids Baker Academic, 2011) 66-71, and the many sources cited there

23 Bahrdt and Venturmi m Albert Schweitzer, The Quest ofthe Historical Jesus (New York Macmillan, 1968) 39 4 4

24 See discussion and sources m my Miracles, 172-76, for prior background m Hume and Deists (and the radical Enlightenment as opposed to early English scientists such as Newton), seepp 107-70

25 See here especially Hans w Frei, The Eclipse ofBiblical Narrative A Study in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Hermeneutics (New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 1974) 233-44, c j den Heyer, Jesus Matters 150 Years of Research (Valley Forge, PA Trinity Press Interna- tional, 1997) 24-25, James Carleton Paget, "Quests for the Historical Jesus," m The Cambridge Companion to Jesus (ed Markus Bockmuehl, Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2001) 143, Andreas Rossler, "Jesus Em blosser Mensch," Zeitzeichen 9 (2008) 56-58 Even Schweitzer, Quest, 68-95, opined that Strauss went too far

Ke e n e r : Miracle Reports and the Argumentfrom Analogy 481

prisingly, Strauss dismissed the healing as psychosomatic.26 Interestingly, however, he did not attribute it to legendary accretion developed over the course o£ generations.27

In contrast to Karl Barth, who highly respected B lum hardt,^ Bult- m ann dismissed stories of cures surrounding Blumhardt as legend.29 Today, however, using journals and letters, historians have shown that reports of dramatic cures, including those that contemporaries believed to be raisings from the dead, do go back to eyewitnesses of Blumhardt's ministry, often written immediately after the experiences. ص

W id e s p r e a d M ir a c l e Be lie fs a n d C l a im s

Bultmann dismissed the need to argue against miracles by claiming that no one in the m odem world believes in them .31 By contrast, Justo González retorts that "what Bultmann declares to be impossible is not just possible, but even frequent" m Latino churches.32 Hwa Yung, Malaysia's former Methodist bishop, warns that Bultmann's assumptions about reality are not shared by Christians in Asia.33 In his Oxford monographs on global Christianity, Philip Jenkins emphasizes that healing, visions, and so forth are greatly valued in the Global South.3̂ Even in the West, as many as 80 percent of Americans believe in divine healing . و ء

More relevant are the figures for those who claim to have witnessed divine healing. A Pew Forum survey of 10 countries in 2006 offered

26 Dieter Ising, Johann Christoph Blumhardt, Life and Work A New Biography (trans Monty Ledford, Eugene, OR Cascade, 2009) 221-22, citing the original corres^ndence

27 Strauss did allow for Jesus's cure of "nervous" disorders (so John Wilson, "The Mir- acles of the Gospels," American Journal ofTheology 9 [190533 - here, p 13), and so presumably ,ا 10would have regarded this case as analogous

28 Morton T Kelsey, Healing and Christianity »! Ancient Thought and Modem Times (New York Harper & Row, 1973) 23b37 Ronald A N Kydd, Healing through the Centuries Models ,־for Understanding (Peabody, MA Hendrickson, 1998) 34, Isuig, Blumhardt, 420, cf Karl Barth, Letters 1961-1968 (ed and trans Geoffrey w Bromiley, Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 1981) 251

P 29 Kydd, Healing, 42 n 4030 See esp Ising, Blumhardt, passim31 Cf e g , Rudolf Bultmann, "New Testament and Mythology," m New Testament My-

thology and Other Basic Writings (ed Schubert Ogden, Philadelphia Fortress, 1984) 432 Justo E González, ^c؛s The Gospel of the Spirit (Maryknoll, NY Orbis, 2001) 8485־׳33 Hwa Yimg, "The Integrity of Mission m the Light of the Gospel Bearing the Witness

of toe Spirit," Mission Studies 24 (2007) 169-88 (here, p 173), idem, Mangoes ٠٢ Bananas? The Quest for an Authentic Asian Christum Theology Biblical Theology in an Asian Context (2nd ed , Regnum Studies m Mission, Oxford Regnum, 2014) 6

34 Jenkins, Next Christendom, 10735 Meier, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, 11, 520-21, Kenneth L Woodward, The Book ٠/

Miracles The Meaning of the Miracle Stories in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam (New York Simon ظ Schuster, 2000) 21, cf Dale A Matthews with Conme Clark, The Faith Factor Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer (New York Vikmg Penguin, 1998) 4, Judith ا John- son and Nathan D Butzen, "Intercessory Prayer, Group Psychology, and Medical Healing," m Miracles God, Science, and Psychology in the Paranormal, vol 2 Medical and Therapeutic Events (ed j Harold Ellens, W estert, CT Praeger, 2008) 249


percentages that, transtated into hard numbers, suggest that in these 10 countries aione, and among Pentecostals and charismatics alone, some 200 million believe that they have witnessed divine healing.^ Another finding o£ the survey seems even more surprising: 39 percent of Christians who do not claim to be Pentecostal or charismatic also claim to have witnessed divine healing.^ Another 2008 Pew Forum study concluded that 34 percent of Americans claim to have witnessed divine healing. و ء

These claims are not limited to Christians, although 1 draw especially from Christian claims in this article. Indeed, until recently anthropologists have focused almost exclusively on non-Christian claims. ق E و x tra o rd in a ry

36 "Spirit and ?ower A 10-Country Survey o£ ?entecostals/׳ Pew Forum Survey (2006) Online http ^pewforum orgurveys/pentecostal (p 3 of overview), accessed September 10, 2014 The study 0 £ global Pentecostahsm has become a flourishing academic disciplme, see, e g , Arlene M Sánchez Walsh, Latino Pentecostal Identity Evangelical Faith, Self, and Society (New York Columbia University Press, 2003), Allan Anderson, An Introduction ؛٠ Pentecostal- ism Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2004), idem, ٢٠ the Ends of the Earth Pentecostahsm and the Transformation of World Christianity (Oxford Oxford Umversity Press, 2013), Michael Bergunder, The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the liven- tieth Century (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 2008) This mterest mcludes their experiences o£ healmg, see, e g , Claudia Wahrich-Oblau, "God Can Make Us Healthy Through and Through On Prayers for foe Sick and the Interpretation o£ Healing Experiences m Christian Churches m Chura and African Immigrant Congregations m Germany," International Review ofMission 90 (2001) 87-102, Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing (ed Candy Gunther Brown, Oxford Oxford University Press, 2011)

37 "Spirit and Power" (p 3 0 £ overview)38 Online http //religions pewforum 0rg/pdf/rep0rt2-rel1g10us־landscape־study־full

pd£ (accessed December 2, 2008)39 See, e g , my Miracles, 242 9ه , Larry Peters, Ecstasy and Healing in Nepal An Ethno-

psychiatric Study ofTamang Shamanism (Mahbu, CA Undena, 1981) 51-53, 61, 63, 65-68, Harry G West, Ethnographic Sorcery (Chicago University o£ Chicago Press, 2007) 90, Edith Turner with William Blodgett, Smgleton Kahoma, and Fideli Benwa, Experiencing Ritual A New In- terpretation of African Healing (Series m Contemporary Ethnography, Philadelphia University o£ Pennsylvania Press, 1992), passim, Edith Turner, Among the Healers Stories of Spiritual and Ritual Healing Around the World (Westport, CT Praeger, 2006) 39-50, 60-69, 76-82, 93-100, 14246, idem, "Takmg Seriously the Nature o£ Rehgious Healmg m America," m Religion and Healing in America (ed Linda L Barnes and Susan s Sered, New York Oxford Umversity Press,2005) 387 404, Prakash N Desai, "Health, Faith Traditions, and South Asian Indians m North America," m Religion and Healing in America, 423-37, Phua Xiong, et a l , "Hmong Shamanism Ammist spiritual Healmg m America's Urban Heartland," m Religion and Healing in America, 439-54, George M Foster, "Disease Etiologies in Non-Western Medical Systems," American Anthropologist 78 (1976) 773-82 (here, pp 778-79), Marcelina T Castro, "Folk Medical Practices of the Ibalois of Benguet" (Ed D diss, Baguio Central Umversity, 1988) e g , p 374, William Robert Filson, "An Analysis of foe Relationship of Pre-Christian Beliefs of the Ibaloi Pentecostal Christians to their Beliefs and Practices Concerning the Verbal Gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 8-12" (MD1V thesis, Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, 1993) 77, Vasudha Narayanan, "Shanti Peace for the Mind, Body, and Soul," m Teaching Religion and Healing (ed Linda L Barnes and Inés Talamantez, American Academy of Religion Teaching Religious Studies, Oxford Ox- ford University Press, 2006) 61-82, Suzanne ] Crawford, "Religion, Healmg, and the Body," m Teaching Religion and Healing, 34-35, Michael Wmkelman and Christopher Carr, "Teaching about Shamanism and Religious Healmg A Cross-Cultural, Biosocial-Spiritual Approach," m Teaching Religion and Healing, 171-90, Paula K R Aral, "M ed iae , H eahg , and Spirituality A Cross-Cultural Exploration/'m Teaching Religion and Healing, 207-18, Angela Hobart, Healing Performance of Ball Between Darkness and Light (New York Berghahn, 2003), Lmda H Connor


reports from any simtlar religious contexts remain relevant for the point of historical analogy; how one approaches them theologically is a different question not relevant to the primary question at hand in this article.40

The point here is not what proportion of anomalous healing claims involve divine activity; even the most ardent theist would not propose that explanation for all these claims. The p o in t-w h e th e r arguing for the possibility of miracles or more simply, as here, for historical plausibility of analogous experiences-is whether hum an experience regarding spontaneous healing in theistic contexts is as uniformly negative as Hume, S trauss, or B uhm ann assum ed.4 l

Ex p e r ie n c e s Th a t C o n v in c e N o n -C h r is t ia n s

As in the Gospels and Acts, not everyone interprets these experiences in the same way.42 Nevertheless, it is not only those who begin with Christian presuppositions who find these experiences convincing. ,Many, in fact ص

and Geoffrey Samuel, eds, Healing Powers and Modernity Traditional Medicine, Shamanism, and Science in Asian Societies (Westport, CT Bergm ه Garvey, ^001), Victoria Arakelova, "Heal- mg Practices among the Yezidi Sheikhs o£ Armenia," Asian Folklore Studies 60 (2001) 319-29, John Anenechukwu Umeh, After God Is Dibia (London Karnak, 1999) 203-27, Dafne Accoroni, "Healmg Practices among the Senegalese Commumty m Pans," m Studies in Witchcraft, Magic, War, and Peace in Africa (ed Beatrice Nicolmi Lewiston, NY Edwm Mellen, 2006) 5-11, Mircea Eliade, Shamanism Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (trans Willard R Trask, New York Bollmgen, 1964) 215-58, 300-308, 326-32, Joseph Uyanga, "The Characteristics of Patients of spiritual Healmg Homes and Traditional Doctors m Southeastern Nigeria," Social Science and Medicine 13 (1979) 323-29, Shirley Shih-Hsm Chm, "Healmg Practices of Eolk Rehgion and Christianity m Taiwan" (ThM thesis, Fuller School of World Mission, 1985) 4-17, s H Allison and H N Malony, "Fih^mo Psychic Surgery Myth, Magic, or Miracle," Journal of Religion and Health 20 (1981) 48-62, Leonardo Mercado, "Power and Spiritual Discipline among Philippine Folk Healers," Dialogue and Alliance 3 (1989) 55-63, Vivian Mildred Forsberg, "Tboli Medicme and the Supernatural" (MA missiology thesis, Fuller Theological Seminary, 1988), Richard Katz, "Healmg and Transformation Perspectives from 'Kung Hunter-Gatherers," m Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health A Cross-Cultural Perspective (ed Colleen A Ward, Cross- Cultural Research and Methodology 12, Newbury Park, CA Sage, 1989) 207-27, K s Smgh, "The Making of a Prophet," m Historical Anthropology (ed Saurabh Dube, New Delhi Oxford University Press, 2007) 106

40 I note it here simply because this theological question IS almost invariably raised (m- eluding m one of the formal responses to my IBR lecture), probably m part because of the legacy of one part of Hume's essay (Hume, Miracles, 40-41), m turn developed from an argument of deists (Bums, Debate, 72-73) I address the question elsewhere (and do personally theologically allow for non-Christian cases of supernatural causation), but it IS beside the point here (see my Miracles, 193-98, Bums, Debate, 242بم Houston, Miracles, 204, Richard Swinburne, introduction to Miracles [ed Richard Swmburne, New York Macmillan, 1989} 17)

41 Unlike some others, Hume's ethnocentrism was explicit and m fact contributed support to the continuance of slavery, see c L Ten, "Hume's Racism and Miracles," Journal of Value Inquiry 36 (2002) 101-7, Charles Taliaferro and Anders Hendrickson, "Hume's Racism and His Case against the Miraculous," Philosophia Christi 4 (2002) 427-41, Craig s Keener, "A Reassessment of Hume's Case agamst Miracles m Light of Testimony from the Ma]0 r1ty World Today," Perspectives in Religious Studies 38 (2011) 289-310

42 C f , e g , Mark 3 22, Matt 11 21 // Luke 10 13, John 11 45-46, Acts 14 3-643 Many healmg reports also appear m non-Christian religious contexts today, note the

sources I cite m Miracles, 242 4 9 , mcludmg many essays m Rehgion and Healing in America (ed


have found them so convincing that they have changed their religious allegiances and often centuries of ancestral traditions on account of them.

As in the Gospels and Acts, these experiences appear to be reported most often, though not exclusively, in settings where the Christian message about Jesus is spreading in areas with the least historic exposure to it.44 China was not listed in the survey of 10 countries mentioned above, but a decade ago researchers estimated that between half and 90 percent of all conversions to Christian faith in the previous two decades stemmed from "faith healing experiences."^ Although we lack means to verify any precise percentage, even the lowest estimates refer to millions of people.

Non-Christians also have affirmed Christian healings in India. For example, one survey already in 1981 concluded that one-tenth of non- Christians in Chennai "had experienced an important cure through prayer to J e s u s ." O n e of my own students from north India noted that his Bap- tist church had grown perhaps 100 times over due to healings of non- Christians in answer to prayer, and there were many other non-Christians healed who appreciated the church but for social reasons did not join it .^ Similarly, a predominantly Hindu area in Nickerie, Suriname that had long resisted the Christian message experienced a people movement with tens of thousands of converts after a well-known, aged skeptic was instantly healed of lifelong paralysis.48

These experiences are not new. Irenaeus reports in his day nearly the same range of miracles that appear in the Gospels and Acts,noting thatthese

L^da L. Barnes and Susan s. Sered; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Edith Turner, Among theHealers: Stories ofSpiritual and Ritual HealingAround the World (Westport, CT: Praeger,2006). Nevertheless, 1 have limited space to explore these issues here, and the Christian claims were most accessible to ¡ne.

44. See, e.g., Christiaan Rudolph de Wet, "Signs and Wonders in Church Growth" (M.A. thesis, Fuller School of World Mission, 1981), passim (esp. p. 92); more recently, j. p. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit's Power (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007) 166-67.

45. Claudia Währich-Oblau, "God Can Make Us Healthy Through and Through: On Prayers for the Sick and the Interpretation of Healing Experiences in Christian Churches in China and African Immigrant Congregations in Germany," International Review ofMission 90 (2001) 87-102 (here, pp. 92-93); Gotthard Oblau, ""Divine Healing and the Growth of Practi- cal Christianity in China," 307-27 in Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing, 313 (the lower figure, from within the official China Christian Council); Edmond Tang, " ׳Yellers' and Healers: Pentecostalism and the Study of Grassroots Christianity in China," in Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face ofChristianity in Asia (ed. Allan Anderson and Edmond Tang; Oxford: Regnum,2005) 481 (the higher figure, focusing on rural areas).

46. Bergunder, Movement, 233 (Chennai was then called Madras).47. Pastor s. Israel, Wynnewood, PA, November 2,1997, and May 6,1998.1 have received

accounts on the same subject from many other students or acquaintances from India, for example, Alex Abraham, interview, Irving, TX, October 29, 2009; Ebenezer Perinbaraj, Wilmore, KY, December 25, 2012.

48. Douglass Norwood, interview, Philadelphia, June 6,2006; also in Douglass Paul Nor- wood, "A Reconciliation Colloquium for Church Leaders in Suriname" (D.Min. diss., Assem- blies of God Theological Seminary, 2001)2 2 6 ه . Norwood, then a Moravian pastor, was present at the precipitating event.


were converting many pagans.^ Tertullian provides names of well-known non-Christians cured from hostile spirits through Christian prayers. Yale صhistorian Ramsay MacMullen notes that the primary reasons for conversion to Christianity in the 300s were exorcisms and healings. ة آ

N o t O n l y f r o m t h e Sc ie n t if ic a l l y N a iv e

Starting philosophic assumptions shape how miracle claims are inter- preted, and an inflexible naturalist may always claim that even the least plausible naturalistic interpretation is more plausible than a supernatural interpretation. Within the Gospels themselves, responses to healings of various sorts diverged widely. 52 Nevertheless, some of these experiences are dramatic enough that they invite special consideration as unusual even from many of those trained, as many of us have been, in methodological naturalism.

A 2004 survey of 1,100 physicians in the United States concluded that 73 percent of doctors believe that miracles such as those in the Bible "can occur today." More significantly, in the context of this question, more than half of doctors also reported seeing "treatment results in their patients that they would consider m iraculous/'^

Medical journals rarely include these experiences because scientific journals address especially what is replicable, and purported miracles, as experiences within history, are neither replicable nor completely predictable.54 (This limitation may be appropriate, restricting scientific inquiry to the scientific method; problems arise only when other useful epistemic approaches are deemed invalid.) Moreover, unusual events that are reported are normally reported as anomalies, not finked with theistic contexts that patients often unfortunately do not even share with their doctors.55 This is not, however, to deny that any documentation of this sort exists.

49. Kelsey, Healing, 150-51 (citing Irenaeus Her. 2.6.2; 2.10.4; 2.31.2; 2.32.3.5.2 ه5ئ ); see much m©re fully R. j. s. Barrett-Lennard, Christian Healing afler the New Testament: Some Ap- proaches ؛٠ Illness in the Second, Third, and Fourth Centuries (Lanham, MD: University Fress of 135- 89 (1994 , لد־هءل .

50. Tertullian Scap. 4, in Kelsey, Healing, 136-37.51. MacMullen, Christianizing, 61-62.52. E.g., Matt 11:20-24 // Luke 10:13-15; John 11:4546.53. See "Science or Miracle," summarizing results of a survey by HCD Research and the

Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies of The Jewish Theological Seminary (Online: http://www.hcdi.net/News/PressRelease.cfm?ID=47 [accessed September 12,2014]).

54. Russ Llewellyn, "Religious and Spiritual Miracle Events in Real-Life Experience," in Miracles: God, Science, and Psychology in the Paranormal, vol. 1: Religious and Spiritual Events (ed. j. Harold Ellens; Westport, CT: Fraeger, 2008) 253; cf. Richard L. Gorsuch, "٠٨ the Limits of Scientific Investigation: Miracles and Intercessory Frayer," in Religious and Spiritual Events, 282.

55. ٠٨ patients not sharing these experiences with their doctors, see, e.g., Margaret M. Foloma, The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads: Charisma and Institutional Dilemmas (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989) 57; Jacalyn Duffin, Medical Miracles: Doctors, Saints, and Healing in the Modem World Oxford: Oxford University Fress, 2009) 131; I have often noticed this frustrating pattern in my interviews.

http://www.hcdi.net/News/PressRelease.cfm?ID=47


The Medical Bureau at Lourdes has been most rigorous in docu- menting the sort of healings known to happen onsite.^ Although much more sporadically, because conditions outside specific locations are less predictable, doctors have sometimes offered medical evidence supporting healings in other religious contexts. Thus, for example, Dr. Rex Gardner, former President of the Newcastle and Northern Counties Medical Society, published case studies regarding anomalous healings that he deemed miraculous, b o th in a medical journal article and also a book . و One case, for example, was the spontaneous healing, in the context of prayer, of a girl's deafness that was due to auditory nerve damage.58

Many witnesses have attested the healings of large numbers of deaf people in Jesus' name in previously completely unchurched villages in Mozambique.5؟ These healings usually lead directly to the planting of churches in these communities that knew the prior and subsequent con־ ditions of the people healed. Researchers documented that a significant proportion of people who received prayer there moved immediately from what would constitute legal deafness or blindness to hearing and sight.60 Although critics rightly pointed out the limitations of testing conditions in Mozambique, the explanation of the research in a more recent study dem- onstrates dramatic changes in the subjects' auditory and visual acuity.61

Other cases include Lisa Larios, a teenager dying from a degenera- tive disease who was suddenly healed during a religious service; testing showed that even her previously degenerated bones had been restored.^ Medical documentation shows that Bruce van Natta's mostly destroyed small intestine more than doubled in length after a prayer of faith . و Non- yem Numbere. a medical doctor, attests the healing of a fractured spine

56 See, e g , Ruth Cranston, The Miracle of Lourdes Updated and Expanded Edition by the Medical Bureau ofLourdes (New York D o u b leday , 1988) For a ^stor^al study o£ Catholic medical documentation and the historically shaped assumptions that inform its usage, see Duffm, Medical Miracles

57 Rex Gardner, "Miracles of Healing m Anglo-Celtic Northumbria as Recorded by the Venerable Bede and His Contemporaries A Reappraisal m the Light of Twentieth-Century Experience," British Medical Journal 287 (1983) 1927-33, idem, Healing Miracles A Doctor Inves- tigates (London Darton, Longman ه Todd, 1986)

58 Gardner, Healing Miracles, 202-559 In addition to published accounts, witnesses mclude Kathy Evans (personal corre-

spondence, November 10, 2008), Shelley Hollis (phone interview, January 10, 2009), recently, see Wendy j Deichmann, "Lessons from Mozambique," س News (2015/1) 20-22 (here, p 20)

60 Candy Gunther Brown, Stephen c Mory, Rebecca Williams, and Michael j McCly- mond, "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal Intercessory Prayer (STEPP) on Auditory and Visual Impairments m Rural Mozambique," Southern Medical Journal 103 (2010) 864-69

61 Candy Gunther Brown, Testing Prayer Science and Healing (Cambridge Harvard Uni- versity Press, 2012) 207-9, 214-20, 223-30

62 H Richard Casdorph, The Miracles A Medical Doctor Says Yes ؛٠ Miracles1 (Plainfield, NJ Logos, 1976) 25-33, although the book's level IS popular, the author ( anMD and PhD) includes foe medical documentation

63 Medical documentation received September 26,2014, from Joel Lantz and Bruce Van Natta


during a worship service. Tonye Briggs, also a medical doctor, provided ئhis eyewitness testimony of a deep and oozing wound healing fully over- night after prayer, preempting the planned am putation.^

In 2006, Carl Cocherell broke his ankle and was told that he would need months of therapy. He experienced God speaking to him and telling him that his foot was not broken, and the two radiology reports, one week apart, show that the fracture had disappeared without a single trace. Likewise, Joy Wahnefried, whose vertical heterophoria was such a classic case of the condition that her portrait graced a brochure advertising the condition, was healed as a fellow college student prayed for her. Although from her doctor's worldview this cure was merely a previously unattested anomaly, no one questioned the cure's genuineness, which had to be medically verified to remove the visual impairment restriction on her driver's license.^ Many other accounts are likewise documented medically.^

E y e w it n e s s e s ' A c c o u n t s

Although doctors' reports are particularly helpful for attesting a significant change in health, lst-century reports lack this sort of attestation. Physi- cians are uniquely competent to evaluate toe etiology of diseases and cures, not addressed here, but for toe historical argument from analogy, it is suf ־ ficient that eyewitnesses whose integrity we have strong reason to trust attest witnessing or experiencing cures in religiously charged contexts.

Eyewitness testimony counts as a form of evidence in sociology, anthropology, history, journalism, and law . For most events, such as صtraffic accidents, we would weigh more heavily a normally trustworthy

64 Nonyem Numbere, personal correspondence (mcludmg photographs), }anuary 6,13,2010

65 Tonye Briggs, phone interview, December 16, 200966 Carl Cocherell, phone interview. May 2, 2009, medical documentation IS m my pos-

session, which I received June 17, 200967 Medical documentation from August 24, 2005, June 8, 2006, October 16, 2009, No-

vember 20, 200968 See, e g , my Miracles, 2 714-24, Llewellyn, "Events," 255, William ? Wilson, "How

Religious or Spiritual Miracle Events Happen Today," m Miracles God, Science, and Psychology in the Paranormal, vol 1 Religious and Spiritual Events (ed } Harold Ellens, W estert, CT, London ?raeger, 2008) 264-79, esp pp 269-73, Chauncey w Crandall IV, Raising the Dead A Doctor Encounters the Miraculous (New York FaithWords, 2010) 50-52,152-53, idem, phone interviews (May 28, 30, 2010), Dr Alex Abraham, interview (Irving, TX, October 29, 2009)

69 See, e g , Karl R Popper, Conjectures and Refutations The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (3rd rev ed , London Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) 21, Robert Wuthnow, "Teaching and Religion m Sociology," m Religion, Scholarship, Higher Education Perspectives, Models, and Pu- ture Prospects (ed Andrea Sterk, Notre Dame, IN University of Notre Dame Press, 2001) 187, Gorsuch, "Limits," 284-85, Michael R Licona, The Resurrection ofjesus A New Historiographical Approach (Downers Grove, 1L InterVarsity, Nottingham Apollos, 2010) 171 n 119, criticism of Hume m George 1 Mavrodes, "David Hume and the Probability of Miracles," International Journal/or Philosophy ofReligion 43 (1998) 167-82 (here, p 168), Earman, Failure, 33, m science, see Stanley Jaki, "Miracles and Physics," Asbury Theological Journal 42 (1987) 5-42, Keith Ward, "Miracles and Testimony," Religious Studies 21 (1985)1 5 س (esp p 133)


eyewitness's claim about the event than the skepticism ه a larger number ءof nonwitnesses who were not present at the event. Granted, various fac- tors may distort the precision of memory, but a consistent core usually remains, especially in memorably significant events. The accounts in this صarticle include both some memories preserved over several decades, perhaps relevant to Mark's Gospel (usually dated four decades after Jesus' ministry), and accounts offered at the time of their occurrence.

Although examples of miracle claims could be multiplied, preference is given to particular kinds below. Because Hume's now-traditional argument against miracle claims q u e s t io n e d the sufficiency of witnesses' integrity, 1 focus especially on respected witnesses with something to lose. Because sources closest to eyewitnesses on average risk fewer layers of sec- ondary elaboration, I give somewhat greater preference here to witnesses whose integrity 1 personally know or witnesses 1 have at least interviewed, allowing me to raise questions and observe responses.

Some ancient Christian writers such as Origen claimed to have witnessed healings/1 For a time, Augustine doubted that cures resembling those in the Gospels and Acts continued in his day, but he was present when his friend Innocent was healed of a painful fistula after prayer. Just two years after beginning to collect documents attesting healings in Hippo alone, Augustine reported 70 cases, not including those not yet formally documented. Some of these were dramatic, including raisings and cures of inability to walk/2

As noted earlier, respectable eyewitnesses also abound today, even for some cures at least as dramatic as most reported in the Gospels. Thus, for example, a number of people report witnessing the instant disappearance of goiters. Among them, scholars Wonsuk and Julie Ma report praying for a woman dying from a toxic goiter; they and others present witnessed the goiter's immediate disappearance.73 Wonsuk, a Fh.D. in Hebrew Bible, is

70 See, with various but probably ultimately complementary emphases, Richard Bauck- ham, "The Eyewitnesses and the Gospel Traditions," Journal/or the Study ofthe Historical Jesus 1 (2003) 28-60, idem, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 2006) 32541 (esp pp 327, 331-34) 345, 492-505, James D G Dunn, A New Perspec- tive on Jesus What the Quest for the Historical Jesus Missed (Grand Rapids Baker, 2005) 4345, 114-15, Paul Rhodes Eddy and Gregory A Boyd, The Jesus Legend A Casefor the Historical Pell- ability ofthe Synoptic Jesus Tradition (Grand Rapids Baker Academic, 2007) 275-85, Judith c s Redman, "How Accurate Are Eyewitnesses? Bauckham and the Eyewitnesses m the Light of Psychological Research," JBL 129 (2010) 177-97, Robert K Mclver, "Eyewitnesses as Guaran- tors of the Accuracy of the Gospel Traditions m the Light of Psychological Research," JBL 131 (2012) 529-46 Eor the ancient Mediterranean emphasis on memory, see also Craig Keener, The Historical Jesus ofthe Gospels (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 2009) 139-64, idem, "Assumptions m Historical Jesus Research Using Ancient Biographies and Disciples' Traditioning as a Control," Journalfor the Study ofthe Historical Jesus 9 (2011) 26-58, idem, "Reading the Gospels as Biog- raphies of a Sage," Buried History 47 (2011) 59-66

71 Cels 146, 67, in Kelsey, Healing, 13672 See Aug City ofGod 22 8, Conf 9 4 12, see discussion, e g , in Nathan M Herum, "Au-

gustme's Theology of the Miraculous" (M D1V thesis, Beeson Divimty School, 2009)73 Julie C Ma, Mission Possible The Biblical Strategy for Reaching the Lost (Regnum Studies

m Mission, Eugene, OR Wipf ه Stock, 2005) 65-66 Some other reports of visibly and instantly


executive director o£ the Oxford Center for Mission Studies, where Julie, a Ph.D. in missiology, is research tutor.

My close friend Danny McCain, a religion professor at the University of Jos, witnessed the complete healing of his younger brother's skin from severe burns during a time of prayer/* Near 1980, 1 myself involuntarily witnessed an anomalous event that most of those present regarded as divine healing. 1 had been helping with an evening bible study at Rose Lane Nursing Home, where Barbara, always bound to her wheelchair, regularly complained about her inability to walk. One evening a middle-aged semi- narian named Don took her by the hand and commanded her to rise and walk in the name of Jesus. She looked as horrified as 1 felt, but he walked her around the room, and from then on, Barbara began to walk, quite proudly/5

Due to space constraints, I survey below some examples from just a few categories of anomalies, especially of the sort immediately evident to observers and thus most likely to be dismissed through the traditional scholarly use of the analogy argument.

C u r e s o f Bl in d n e s s

Multiple attestation supports the tradition that Jesus cured blindness/6 Whatever the explanations offered for such cures,77 they continue to be claimed by witnesses in religious contexts today.

Hundreds of claims of divinely cured blindness are available, 7 but 1 عwill cite onlyafew examples here. Dr. Rex Gardner reports a case of restored sight through prayer so complete that the man no longer even needed the glasses he had been wearing for 12 years before his accident.^ When a medical trainee was healed of a deadly disease, Gardner notes, even her eye scarring disappeared, an event the physicians deemed extraordinary.80

heaied goiters include ibid, 64, idem, "Elva Vanderbout A Woman Pioneer of Pentecostal Mission among Igorots," Journal of Asian Mission 3 (2001) 12140 (here, p 130), Gebru Woldu, interview. May 20, 2010, Bruce Kinabrew, personal correspondence, June 24, 2008, Dwight Palmquist, personal correspondence, February 2, 2009

74 Danny McCain, personal correspondence, June 1, 2009, mterview, Wilmore, July 17, 2011, further details m personal correspondence, November 24 and 30, 2014 A doctor, Mirtha Venero Boza, also attests witnessing serious bums disappear durmg prayer, m her case it took half an hour (mterview, Santiago de Cuba, August 6, 2010)

75 My younger brother Christopher Keener, now a Ph D in physics, also witnessed this occasion (personal corres؛^ndence, January 30 and February 8, 2009)

76 Eg , Mar k8 22-26,10 46-52,Matt 1 1 5 //Luke722,Matt 1222,1530-31,2114,Luke 721,John97

77 E g , Donald Capps, Jesus the Village Psychiatrist (Louisville, KY Westminster John Knox, 2008) 8, 57-80, suggests that the blmdness could have been psychogenic m character, cf Davies, Healer, 70-72

78 See my Miracles, 510-2379 Gardner, Healing Miracles, 31-35 Many others could be included, such as the heal-

mg and restoration to sight of a punctured eye, as m Paul p Parker, "Suffering, Prayer, and Miracles," Journal ofReligion and Health 36 (1997) 205-19 (here, p 216)

80 Gardner, Healing Miracles, 20-21 On the disappearance of scar tissue m another case of healed blmdness, see Allen Spraggett, Kathryn Kuhlman The Woman Who Believes in Miracles


Many witnesses report ^ e visible disappearance o£ white eye coat- ings or cataracts during prayer.81 In 2004, Flint McGlaughlin, now director of Enterprise Research at the Transforming Business Institute, Cambridge University, prayed for a blind man in India who could see only shadows. The man's eyes suddenly cleared, and he began shouting that he could see; for days, he walked around joyfully pondering everything around him.82

Accounts abound in Africa. For example, 1 received several reports of hdracles from Cameroonian Baptist pastor Paul Mokake, previously my M.Div. student and afterward a D.Mim student at the same seminary.88 When another M.Div. student close to our family, Yolanda McCain, was visiting Cameroon, she personally witnessed a blind m an receive sight when Paul prayed for him, an encounter that Paul confirmed afterward when I inquired.84

Dr. Bungishabaku Katho, president of Shalom University in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo, notes that in 1993 he and his coworkers, who were evangelizing some villages, prayed for an elderly blind woman. After about two minutes she began shouting that she could see, and she remained sighted for the rest of her life, another decade.88

Accounts of this sort also appear in the United States, where medical documentation is easier to obtain. Suffering from macular degeneration, Greg Spencer was on disability; his vision was 20/400 in the right eye and 20/200 in the left. On April 20, 2002, he was praying for cleansing of his mind from horrible images related to his past work investigating crimes, when he experienced not only a cleansing of his mind, which he deems the greater miracle, but a sudden restoration of his sight (to the level of 20/30). Medical reports attest "a remarkable return of his visual acuity." Because macular degeneration does not normally reverse, the Social Secu- rity Administration launched a lengthy investigation but concluded that he was in fact restored, free to work, and no longer qualified for disability.^

(Cleveland: World, 1970) 71-75, 137; and especially the details in Wayne E. Warner, Kathryn Kuhlman: The Woman behind the Miracles (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1993) 132-34.

SI. E.g., Chester Allan Tesoro, interview, January 30,2009; Gebru Woldu (interview, May 20, 2010); Robin Shields, personal correspondence, Eebruary 7, 2009; Tom Parrish, interview, February 5, 2014; popular accounts in Elsie H. Salmon, He Heals Today, ٠٢ A Healer's Case Book (2nd ed.; Evesham, U.K.: Arthur James, 1951) 68; Rolland and Heidi Baker, There Is Always Enough: The Story ofRolland and Heidi Baker's Miraculous Ministry among the ?٠٠٢ (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003) 76,171-72, 173; cl. also the testimony ءه a retired radiologist in Candy Gunther Brown, "Global Awakenings: Divine Healing Networks, and Global Community in North America, Brazil, Mozambique, and Beyond," in Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing, 363.

82. Flint McGlaughlin, personal correspondence, February 6-7, 2009; confirmed by another eyewitness, Robin Shields, personal corresjrondence, February 7-8,2009.

83. Interviews, Wynnewood, PA, June 3, 2006; May 13, 2009.84. Yolanda McCain, personal correspondence, October 3,2008; Paul Mokake, interview.

May 13, 2009.85. Bungishabaku Katho, interview, Wynnewood, PA, March 12,2009. He belongs to As-

semblée des Frères Evangélique, the Western equivalent o£ which has traditionally questioned continuing miracles.

86. Medical reports £rom July 1, 1999; May 3, 2002; letter £rom the Social Security Ad- ministration, dated June 12, 2003.

K ee n e r : Miracle Reports and the Argumentfrom Analogy 491

R e s u s c it a t io n s

Multiple attestation supports the belief that Jesus sometimes raised the dead.87 An argument from analogy technically cannot undermine this claim because subsequent history reports numerous cases of persons believed dead reviving, including a quite significant number in the context of direct prayer.88 John Wesley, for example, prayed for one Mr. Meyrick, who was believed dead, and the latter revived.8؟

Scores of accounts of these resuscitations appear today as well, and again I offer samples here.8؟ Among many reports from Indonesia, Yusuf Herman, a minister and friend from Indonesia, connected me w ith his friend Dominggus whose neck had been cut. Journalists' photographs in my possession attest Dominggus's a p p a re n t ly dead condition, but he is now alive. Although his neck required medical intervention, once doctors realized that he was now alive, and although Dominggus still bears the scars, he recounts a postmortem experience before his return to life.91

According to the General Secretary of Evangelical Church Eellowship of Ethiopia, Assayehegn Berhe, raisings often occur in Ethiopia.2؟ Because of three summers in Nigeria and my wife's being from Congo-Brazzaville, we know well some people who have experienced what are believed to be resuscitations. Two of my coworkers in Nigeria attest raisings, one after praying for "a few hours" until a corpse revived and another himself reviving about nine hours after his fatal accident, most of the time spent in a morgue.8 We interviewed several eyewitnesses of resuscitations in the وcontext of prayer in the mainline Protestant church of Congo-Brazzaville, including my mother-in-law, who reports that she detected no b re a th in g

87. Matt 11:5 // Luke 7:22; Mark 5:3543; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:3945; Quadratus ؛rag- ment in Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.3.2.

88. See e.g., Irenaeus, Haer. 2.31.2; Augustine, City of God 22.8; Gardner, "Miracies of Healing," 1932; William Young, "Miracles in Church History," Churchman 102 (1988) 102-21 (here, pp. 110,116,118); Ising, Blumhardt, 207, 219; Bilinda Straight, Miracles and Extraordinary Experience in Northern Kenya (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007) 135-37; Duffin, Medical Miracles, 81,145.

89. See John Wesley, The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley (ed. Nehemiah Cumock; 8 vols.; London: Epworth, 1938) 55-56 (December 15-25,1742). Historians often note this report, e.g., Thomas s. Kidd, "The Healing of Mercy Wheeler: Illness and Miracles among Early American Evangelicals," William andMary Quarterly 63 (2006) 149-70 (here, p. 159); Stephen Tomkins, John Wesley: A Biography (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2106 (3س. Other early modem reports include those in Ising, Blumhardt, 207, 219.

90. I elaborate more lightly here because 1 addressed resuscitations more fully in "The Dead are Raised" (Matthew 11:5 II Luke 7:22): Resuscitation Accounts in the Gospels and Eyewitaess^stinrony,"BBR25 (2015): 55-80. See further discussion in Keener, Miracles, 536-79.

91. Yusuf Herman, interview, Wilmore, Kentucky, July 10, 2011; Dominggus Kenjam, August 7, 2011.

92. Luis Bush and Beverly Pegues, The Move ofthe Holy Spirit in the 10/40 Window (ed. Jane Rumph; Seattle: YWAM, 1999) 52; examples include a report from Gebru Woldu (interview, Wynnewood, PA, May 20, 2010; personal correspondence. May 21, 2010; June 3, 2010).

93. Leo Bawa, personal correspondence, August 10, 2009; Timothy Olonade, personal correspondence, May 12, 22,2014; interview, Eebruary 20, 2015.


for three hours in my sister-in-law until a minister friend p r a y e d . A f t e r 1 shared some of these reports in an SBL· session, suggesting that listening to Majority World voices could help us better appreciate such accounts in the Gospels, Dr. Ayo Adewuya, an 1BR member, shared his own account of his son's resuscitation after half an hour of prayer. و و

Researchers attribute the beginning of a people movement among the Nishi tribal people in northeast India to the resuscitation through prayer of an official's son.96 Two Western sociologists interviewed local eyewitnesses elsewhere in India, including non-Christians, who attested resuscitations through Christian prayer. و A pastor from Mumbai shared w إل ith me the resuscitation of a Hindu boy, Vikram, after more than an hour of prayer. و و1 interviewed a coworker in the Philippines who gave me her own account of being resuscitated in 1984 immediately after a Baptist minister's prayer for her in the morgue.99 Dr. Mervin Ascabano also reports a resuscitation there in 2009, although after a much briefer interval, o

In the West, Deborah Watson, my colleague in Greek at my previous seminary, recounted the resuscitation of her younger sister, elaborated for me more fully by Deborah's father. ! ه Cardiologist Chauncey Crandall آreports his own experience w ith the resuscitation of Jeff Markin after 40 minutes with no heart activity. -Similarly, Sean George, a consultant phy صsician in Kalgoorlie, Australia, attests his own extraordinary resuscitation and recovery, albeit more gradually and with more medical help, and has the medical documentation . ص

Irreparable brain damage sets in after six minutes with no oxygen, but none of these cases yielded brain damage. My wife or I know 10 eyewitnesses well enough directly to trust their testimony; if one case is merely

94. E.g., Jeanne Ma^ala, interview, Brazzaviile, Congo, July 29, 2008; Albert Bissoues- soue, interview, Brazzaville, July 29,2008; Antoinette Malombé, interview, Dolisie, Congo, July 12, 2008; Ngoma Moi'se, phone interview, May 14, 2009.

95. November 22, 2009; confirmed in j. Ayodeji Adewuya, phone interview, Decem- ber 14, 2009; personal correspondence, December 16-17, 2009.

96. De Wet, "Signs," 110-11 (following R. R. Cunville, "The Evangelization of Northeast India" [D.Miss. diss.. Fuller Theological Seminary, 1975] 156-57).

97. Miller and Yamamori, Pentecostalism, 151-52. The sociologists themselves are not Pentecostal.

98. Pastor Willie Soans, personal correspondence, November 3,2010, via Ivan Satyavrata and Jacob Mathew.

99. Elaine Panelo, interview, Baguio, Philippines, January 30, 2009.100. Mervin Ascabano, correspondence, January 9, 2009; February 6, 2009.101. James Watson, correspondence, November 27, 2009; Deborah Watson, personal cor-

respondence, November 30, December 9, 2009.102. Chauncey Crandall, phone interviews, May 28, 30, 2010; Crandall, Raising, 1-5; cf.

also Llewellyn, "Miracle Events," 254-55.103. Personal correspondence, November 8, 2013; his account also appears on the DVD

Towards (Sutherland, Australia: Clive Tree Media, 2011). Accounts attested by doctors (normally including medical intervention but extraordinary outcomes) occasionally receive media attention, as in journalist Ray Quinn's news report at NBC's local St. Louis affiliate available online at http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/features/2015/02/03/hear-miraculous recove^C־ em resc^d־ice/:^819829/, February 4, 2015 [accessed February 7, 2015].

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/features/2015/02/03/hear-miraculous


an anomaly, the comcidence of 10 anomalies m our immediate c irc le -th e compoundmg of improbabilities 10 times over—seems remarkably anomalous.104 Granted that mistakes in detecting death are made, one might choose to argue the same for the biblical accounts; that is, the experiences are believable regardless of the explanations we assign to them, even if we allow for multiple cases in the same circle.

N a t u r e M ir a c l e s

Accounts of nature miracles are less frequent than many other kinds of accounts, but they are more common than most of us in the West would expect. Here again, 1 offer samples. Thus, for example, some citizens of صone village challenged the Christian witness of a young Watchman Nee and his colleagues, claiming that for 286 years it had never rained on the scheduled day of their local god's festival. Because one of the Christians announced that this year would be different, the team prayed concertedly, and torrential rain ruined the festival on both its original and rescheduled dates, leading to many conversions. ̂

104 For example, ى one might estimate the probability of this sort of anomaly m the immediate circle of one's family as 1 m 10 (a rather generous estímate if exorbitant numbers of people are not being buried prematurely), the probability of 10 of these anomalies would be 1 m 10 billion, so that one would not expect this sort of comcidence more than once ٧٦ the world's population Add to this the comcidence that I happened to write a book on the subject, and It appears to me that the explanation of mere comcidence IS grossly improbable, a grasp- mg at straws But some will nevertheless deem it a better explanation than the alternatives

105 See more extensively my Miracles, 579-99, also, e g , Chm Kua Khai, "The Assem- blies of God and Fentecostalism m Myanmar," m Asian and Pentecostal The Charismatic Face ٠/ Christianity in Asia (ed Allan Anderson and Edmond Tang, Oxford Regnum, 2005) 268, David Crump, Knocking on Heaven's ٥٠٠٢ A New Testament Theology ofPetitionary Prayer (Grand Rapids Baker Academic, 2006) 13, Larry Eskridge, God's Forever Family The Jesus People Movement in America (Oxford Oxford University Press, 2013) 32, 80, m earlier times, see Young, "Miracles m History," 111, 114, Ismg, Blumhardt, 215, Yung, "Integrity," 174, Gary B McGee, "Miracles," m Encyclopedia 0} Mission and Missionaries (ed ]onathan j Bonk, New York Routledge, 2007) 253, idem, Miracles, Missions, and American Pentecostalism (American Society of Missiology Se- ries 45, Maryknoll, NY Orbis, 2010) 51, 242, Klaus Koschorke, Frieder Ludwig, and Mariano Delgado, eds, History ofChristianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450-1990 A Documentary Sourcebook (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 2007) 223-24, Lamm Sanneh, West African Christianity The Religious Impact (Maryknoll, NY Orbis, 1983) 181 ̂ 3 These claims extend even to water walking (eg, Julia Theis Dermawan, "A Study of the Nias Revival m Indonesia," Asian Journal ofPentecostal Studies 6 [2003] 247-63, here, p 256), phone interview, Mel Tari, April 15, 2014, interview, Dr Christin Kalvin, April 1-2, 2015, Makassar, Indonesia), multiplied food (e g , Young, "Miracles m History," 118-19, Gam Wiyono, "Timor Revival A Historical Study of the Great Twentieth-Century Revival m Indonesia," Asian Journal ofPentecostal Studies 4 [2001] 269-93, here, p 286, Eskridge, Movement, 81-82), supernatural lights (Mark A Noll, and Carolyn Nystrom, Clouds ofWitnesses Christian Voicesfrom Africa and Asia [Owners Grove, IL InterVarsity, 2011] 30, Cohn Peckham and Mary Peckham, Soundsfrom Heaven The Revival on the Isle ofLewis, 1949-1952 [Ross-shire, Scotland Christian Focus, 2004] 107), and water turned to wme (Wiyono, "Timor Revival," 285-86, citing interviews with eyewitnesses, Kurt Koch, The Revival in Indonesia [Baden Evangelization Publishers, Grand Rapids Kregel, 1970] 208-17, especially seeing it himself, pp 212-17)

106 See Angus Kinnear, Against the Tide The Story of Watchman Nee (Wheaton, IL Tyn- dale, 1978) 92-96 Miracle accounts are far more characteristic of Nee's contemporary John


Emmanuel Itapson, who was my colleague in Hebrew Bible at Palmer Seminary, recounts an experience he witnessed in his youth. Ridiculed in the village where he was trying to establish a church, Emmanuel's father. Anana Itap, angrily warned that it would not rain in the village for the next four days. As his critics left laughing, Itap fell on his face, fearing that he had gone too far. It was, after all, rainy season. For the next four days, rain poured down around the village, but none inside it. At the end of those four days, only one person in the village had not become a Christian, and the local people still relate this account of how it became a Christian village.^

In addition to some students and colleagues who offered me eyewitness accounts of nature miracles,!٠® 1 myself was present when a storm, predicted to continue all day, stopped within seconds of a group's prayer for it to stop.109

C o n c l u s i o n

However explained, surveys suggest that hundreds of millions of people today claim to have witnessed what they consider divine healing. More- over, millions of people with different starting assumptions have changed centuries of ancestral allegiances on the basis of such experiences. As in the gospel tradition, these experiences do include even healing of blindness, resuscitation of some dead persons through prayer, and occasionally what their reporters consider nature miracles. Some experiences even go beyond the gospel tradition in reporting instant or nearly instant visible changes such as vanishing goiters.

Scholars will continue to debate the reasons for such experiences. That even firsthand witnesses can claim to experience them, however, should not be denied. The traditional argument from analogy against cures occur- ring in Jesus's ministry was designed in a different era, with quite-different information available from what we have available today.

Reports such as these may challenge conventional skepticism concerning the cures in the Gospel accounts. Depending on how they are un- derstood, some experiences might also be used to support challenges to Hume's presumption against sufficient credible witnesses regarding genuine miracles. For the purposes of this essay, however, what matters is that, to whatever explanations scholars attribute these experiences, "legend

Sung (see, e.g., John Sung, The Diaries ofjohn Sung: An Autobiography [trans. Stephen L. Sheng; Brighton, MI: Sheng and Sheng, 1995]), but Nee's account appears here because it is a weather miracle report.

107. Emmanuel Itapson, interview, April 29, 2008; phone interview, December 15, 2009. They belong to the evangelical West African denomination ECWA, connected with SIM.

108. E.g., Sandy Thomas (August 26, 2008); Ayodeji Adwuya (November 22, 2009; De- cember 14,2009); ?aul Mokake (June 3,2006; May 13,2009); Donna Arukua (January 29,2009); Benjamin Ahanonu (September 29,2009; confirmed by another witness, Simon Hauger, phone interview, December 4, 2009).

109. ?ersonal journal, November 6,1993 (written the day that 1 witnessed the event).

K e e ^ r : Miracle Reports and the Argumentfrom Analogy 495

ary accretion" is not a necessary assumption even for the most dramatic miracle reports. The presence of these reports in the Gospels, then, does not compel the assumption that the Jesus tradition must have developed wildly in the decades before the Evangelists began writing. Those who wish to make this sort of case should not include the analogy argument against miracles in their arsenal.

آلمآورلم؛

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