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103 INTRODUCTION ON THE POSSIBILITY OF EXPERIENCING MIRACLE in theologos! I F miracle really is the favorite child of faith, then, at least for some time, faith has been seriously neglecting its parental duties. For at least a century, the child has been only a source of great embarrassment for the wet nurse dispatched by its parent, theology: she would gladly have got rid of it somehow or other, if only—yes, if only—a certain consideration for the parent had not held her back while the child was alive. But time brings counsel. The old parent cannot live forever. And the wet nurse will know what to do with the poor worm, incapable as it is of living or dying on its own. She has, moreover, already begun making the preparations. What happened, then, to ruin what, until relatively recently, had been such a happy family life, if we can trust old news at least, such that today we can scarcely remember those better times so recently vanished? For, as it stands today, it is difficult for us to believe that there was once such a time, and that it was only a while ago when miracle was not an embarrassment, but instead, theology’s strongest and surest companion. What has happened in the meantime? And how did it happen? Already the first observation that strikes us is surprising enough: the moment of that reversal, of that transformation of the line of resistance, till now the most solid, into a front-line trench, very weakly manned, risking surrender at the first assault, the moment of reversal, then, coincides with the one which, in the Introduction to the previous Part we located as the critical moment also for philosophy, the moment philosophy exploded in its hands, where philosophy thought it had firmly grasped it, the fundamental concept of the knowable All. At this moment, philosophy had felt its ancient throne falter; the dynasty of over two thousand years—including an exile of a thousand years—founded by Thales and Parmenides, seemed to die out as brilliantly and as suddenly with one of the most eminent heirs. And it was almost at the same time that theology also saw itself forced to carry out, higher up, ON BELIEF PART TWO: INTRODUCTION 104 the evacuation of the line it had held for thousands of years and to take refuge in a new position in a further retreat. A striking coincidence! WHEN Augustine or another Church Father had to defend the divinity and the truth of revealed religion against the attacks and doubts of the pagans, they seldom missed the opportunity to refer to miracles. Although it was not only revealed religion that claimed miracles, since Pharaoh’s wise men also confirmed their wisdom with miracles, they were its most powerful argument. For, it could well be that the pagan magicians also turned their rods into snakes: the rod of Moses swallowed the rods of idol worshippers. His own miracles were even more miraculous than the miracles of the adversary. The weight of the miracle, which a rationalist mindset would have reduced as much as possible, was therefore, on the contrary, increased to full strength. The more miraculous it was, the truer it was. Although a concept of nature already existed, it did get in miracle’s way like today’s concept that, in the common consciousness, destroys joy in the face of the miraculous. Natural events that are subject to laws, this basic dogma for us today, was just as obvious for the ancients. For all practical purposes, in our case it amounts to the same thing whether everything is guided and determined by forces residing in things or by the influence of higher powers. If it were otherwise, the way miracle as such could be perceived would have to seem puzzling for us; for us, today, miracle seems to need the backdrop of natural laws, for it is only against this that it stands out as it were as miracle. But in so doing, we see only that, for human consciousness at that time, the miraculous character of miracle rested on a completely different context: not on its divergence as regards the course of nature predetermined by laws, but on the fact that it was predicted . Miracle is essentially “sign.” As just noted, it is quite correct that the singular miracle, in a totally miraculous world, totally devoid of laws, and enchanted as it were, could not stand out as miracle...

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