Hume on Miracles

by Stanley Tweyman (Editor)

Containing the most important secondary literature, this work focuses on responses to Hume's Essay on Miracles. The material included ranges from 1751 to 1883, and includes such authors as T. Rutherford, William Adams, John Leland, George Campbell, Rev. S. Vince, John Hollis, Rev. James Somerville, Dr. Wately, Rev. A. C. L. D'Arblay, Rev. Francis Kilvert, Malthus, Joseph Napier, Joseph Mazzinin Wheeler, Sir Edmund Beckett, James McCosh, and Huxley.

180 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Théo d'Or]

I will not dwell on Hume's thinking on miracles, for a quite simple reason. His vision on this topic is perhaps no more worthy of consideration than mine or yours, generally speaking. Of course, not neglecting his indisputable merits. I'II limit myself only to my thoughts about it, which tell me, also as to others maybe, that there is an ingrained intellectual tendency to place miracles in the less frequented area of irrational.
The miracle becomes a problem that, at the moment, cannot be solved, so that its " reality " is somewhat suspended and depends on the result of further investigations.
Things are different with the religious man, however. Far from being a subjective inclination towards the irrational, faith is a demanding condition of the miracle. Seeing an miraculous event with your own eyes may be an existential challenge, but faith is not, fundamentally, a faith in miracles, but in the power of the one who makes himself visible through miraculous signs. Thus, the miracle is at this intersection of the visible and the invisible as a sign, as a dialogue between divine and human freedom, but never as a goal of faith or as a defining proof.