Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Miracle Or Myth Or Both?

Miracle Or Myth Or Both?

Last updated on: September 17, 2018 at 12:05 am by Scot McKnight

Miracle Or Myth Or Both? 2018-09-15T09:41:56-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

To connect the word “myth” with what traditional Christians have called “miracles” is to court both misunderstanding and disagreement, if not also some disappointment. Luke Timothy Johnson contends that for us to recapture a world in which the miracles of God are alive and well means we have to recapture miracles as myths and to learn to define myth appropriately. We are looking again at Luke Timothy Johnson’s new book on miracles, Miracles: God’s Presence and Power in Creation.

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are stirring in their graves.

Let’s give Johnson’s claims a fair description. First, myth and falsehood are connected for empiricists.

Secularists are true heirs of the Enlightenment in their dismissal of myth as a species of falsehood associated with ignorance (of natural laws) and superstition.

The NT criticizes some kinds of myths, but he says they are not aware of how mythic language works at times.

But the derogation of myth actually begins within the New Testament, which opposes the truth of the gospel to the “endless myths” of both Judaism and Gentile religion (see 1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; Titus 1:14; 2 Pet. 2:16). What the authors of the New Testament were not in a position to recognize is the degree to which its own claims concerning God’s power and presence were themselves mythic in character.

Johnson’s big issue is that too many dismiss miracle when they encounter mythic language.

In any case, the dismissal of myth as a species of falsehood goes hand in hand with the rejection of the miraculous. It was in order to secure a miracle-free version of the good news that “demythologization” of the New Testament itself was regarded as essential to secure a credible faith for “modern man,” who supposedly dwells in a myth-free environment (Kraftchick 2014).

His next claim is the big one: to embrace miracle is to embrace myth. Which will lead next to his definition of myth, on which this whole chapter and book hangs:

It follows, then, that an enthusiastic embrace of God’s presence and power in creation through “signs and wonders” demands a positive appreciation of myth as the distinctive mode of speaking truth concerning realities for which science and philosophy have no adequate language.

So what is myth? It is connected human agency with divine agency in an explanatory frame. Myth then is, if I say so myself, hermeneutics.

By “myth” I mean first-order statements, often but not necessarily in the form of a narrative, that place human and divine persons in situations of mutual agency (Johnson 2014). Since human agency is involved, such statements claim to be about the same empirical world that we all perceive; but because divine agency is also and even primarily involved, such statements also resist ordinary empirical verification.

Now to Paul and his theological redemptive hermeneutic that explains what God did in Jesus as mythic narrative that is simultaneously miraculous:

2 Corinthians 5:19 …Although Paul is undoubtedly referring to the historical figure Jesus of Nazareth, nothing in this statement is empirically verifiable: “Christ,” “God,” “world,” and “reconciling” are not locatable among the material objects of everyday life. The statement is most clearly mythic because it ascribes causality directly to God within the frame of worldly existence. [mine] In 5:18, Paul provides a parallel version: “All things are from God, who was reconciling us to himself through Christ.

Only believers have this hermeneutic.

With such statements, Paul places the intersection of divine and human agency within a distinctive understanding of reality that is shared among those he includes within his “we.”

… by no means does he suggest that such a perception of reality is shared by all.

So Johnson’s big claim is that believers need mythic language to explain what can only be perceived by faith.

Paul’s Letters suggest that mythic language is necessary for the faithful to declare even the most basic convictions of faith. Stating that “Christ died for all” and that “God raised him from the dead” belongs not to historical discourse but to mythical discourse. Christians do well to embrace such language enthusiastically, for without it they must remain mute concerning the truths by which they claim to live.

There are three elements to all mythic explanations:

If we return to our passage in 2 Corinthians 5, we see that the context for Paul’s statement “God was in Christ” contains abundant evidence for all three elements. [1] First, the experience: when Paul states in 5:5 that the one who works in him and his associates to prepare them for a heavenly habitation is the God who has given them the pledge that is the Holy Spirit, he echoes a statement he made earlier in the letter: “God is the one who has secured us with you into Christ [eis Christon] and has anointed [chrisas] us. And he has sealed us and has given us the pledge that is the Holy Spirit in our hearts” (2 Cor. 1:21-22). Fc

In turn, [2] this powerful personal experience of God’s Holy Spirit through Christ grounds the judgment that Paul shares with his readers concerning Jesus’ apparently shameful death by legal execution—a negative historical fact if ever there was one! Paul and his fellows “have reached the judgment” [krinontas] concerning Jesus’ death (2 Cor. 5:14): it was not a death cursed by God (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13), but a sacrifice undertaken for all, indeed, an expression of love “for us” (2 Cor. 5:14).

Participation in the Spirit coming from Christ therefore [3] means also human participation in the pattern of his existence, as Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 6:9: “We are as people dying, and behold, we live.

His summary:

Paul’s Letters show how the experience of a resurrection Spirit out of an empirical death demands the use of mythic language, is the only possible means of expressing the truth, impels a reshaping of the symbolic world structuring the reality of his fellow Jews, and demands proclamation to the world of a new paradigm of power-in-weakness that is the sign of God’s reconciling presence in creation. The use of such mythic language is no less the necessary means of expressing the experience of God’s power and presence in miracles.

What say you?

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 16, 2018

O God...

Next Post

September 18, 2018 Ambition … Virtue or Vice? Revisited (RJS)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Golgotha" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mountain of God Valley of Death House of Bread Place of the Skull