Lewis Leaves Room for Miracles

C.S. Lewis. 1974. Miracles: A Preliminary Study (Orig Pub 1960). New York: HarperCollins.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Being open to miracles does not mean that one is gullible or prone to fits of fantasy. Resistance to the idea of miracles is perhaps more a product of accepting an overly deterministic view of science. If the image of science is crafted primarily in the mathematics of interplanetary motion, then clearly one expects the world to adhere to a level of precision that defies the imagination and exceeds normal expectations about how things really work.

Introduction

In his book, Miracles, C.S. Lewis (3-4) writes:

“This book is intended as a preliminary to historical inquiry. I am not a trained historian and I shall not examine the historical evidence for the Christian miracles. My effort is to put my readers in a position to do so.”

He defines the word, miracle: “to mean interference with Nature by supernatural power.” (5)

While I grant the ability of God to intervene in spectacular ways in our lives, more often I observe God’s provision in quiet acts timed to my advantage. I entered government service in the last pay period of 1983 after a long spell of unemployment due to a hiring freeze, which meant that I qualified for the older, more generous retirement system. Fast forward twenty years and I was able to retire and attend seminary primarily because I could afford to retire, which would not have been true if my employment had been delayed only a couple days—something of no concern to me back when I started. My retirement date was also accompanied by gratuitous timing to my benefit without foreknowledge or special effort on my part. Miraculous? Was God’s finger on the scales of time to advantage me? I have certainly felt so.

Lewis begins his book with a cite from Aristotle: “Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary questions.” (1) He goes on to observe: “What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience.” (2) Lewis’ insight here is remarkable because he is writing before the postmodern period was at all obvious when most people still believed in objectivity, a modern, not postmodern, idea. It is now recognized that what we observe cannot be separated from the concepts that we hold. The definition of a problem in the scientific method is the most difficult step in the process because without a problem definition one only has an undefined felt need. Clearly, Lewis was already aware of this problem, long before others clearly articulated it.

Background and Organization

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) is one of the best-known authors of the twentieth century, writing both fiction and nonfiction books that have become Christian classics and made into movies. Lewis was educated at Oxford and later joined the faculty Works include the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity. I previously reviewed his memoir, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (link).

Lewis writes Miracles in seventeen chapters:

The Scope of this Book
The Naturalist and the Supernaturalist
The Cardinal Difficulty of Naturalism
Nature and Supernature
A Further Difficulty in Naturalism
Answers to Misgivings
A Chapter of Red Herrings
Miracles and the Laws of Nature
A Chapter Not Strictly Necessary
‘Horrid Red Things’
Christianity and ‘Religion’
The Propriety of Miracles
On Probability
The Grand Miracle
Miracles of the Old Creation
Miracles of the New Creation
Epilogue (vii-viii).

These chapters are followed by several appendices.

The Grand Miracle

Lewis is a nonlinear thinker and my impatient mind finds him inaccessible at times, but his logic is unassailable. Lewis reminds us that the heart of the Christian message is a miracle that is often referred to as the incarnation. He writes:

“God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this…It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion—an invasion which intends complete conquest and occupation’. The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depends on their relation to the Grand Miracle; all discussion of them in isolation from it is futile.” (173)

Lewis’ insight here is prescient and it eludes even the agile-minded. Think about it—how many people don’t you know who claim the title of Christian, but refuse to accept Jesus’ miracles as anything other than window dressing. Thomas Jefferson, for example, rewrote his Bible, editing out anything he considered miraculous—why did he bother? Without Christ, there is no Bible and the heart of the Christian message is the miracle of Christ’s incarnation and his resurrection.

Assessment

C.S. Lewis’ book, Miracles, is itself a wonder. While I read this book in English for purposes of this review, I have used a Spanish edition for my devotions this fall. Lewis is thought provoking, which makes the book good for devotional use. Readers interested in particular biblical miracles may want to look elsewhere because Lewis’ purpose in writing is more fundamentally to explore the relationship of miracles to our scientific preconceptions and help us realize the limits to such preoccupations.

Footnotes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._L....

Lewis Leaves Room for Miracles
Also see:
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
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