Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:50:27.173Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Overall and Aquinas on Miracles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2015

DAVID K. KOVACS*
Affiliation:
Fordham University

Abstract

Christine Overall has argued that miracles, if they exist, would be an evil committed by God and therefore disprove the existence of God. However, her notion of a miracle as an intervention presupposes a view about the relation between God and creation that posits God as an ‘outsider.’ Such a view has not been held by all theists. It was not held by Thomas Aquinas. I show that Aquinas’s conception is not susceptible to Overall’s criticisms. The upshot is that theists should avoid any view of God as an ‘outsider,’ if they wish to avoid Overall’s criticisms.

Christine Overall a affirmé que les miracles, s'ils existaient, seraient un mal commis par Dieu, et ainsi qu'ils démontreraient la non-existence de Dieu. Cependant, sa notion de miracle comme intervention présuppose une opinion selon laquelle Dieu serait «au-dehors». Une telle opinion n'est pas partagée par tous les théistes. Elle n'était pas partagée par Thomas d'Aquin. Je montrerai que la conception de Thomas d'Aquin n'est pas compromise par les critiques formulées par Overall. Le résultat est que les théistes devraient éviter de concevoir Dieu comme étant «au-dehors» s’ils veulent éviter les critiques d'Overall.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aquinas, Thomas 1948 The Summa Theologica (5 volumes), tr. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, New York: Benzinger Bros.Google Scholar
Aquinas, Thomas 1952–54 Truth (3 volumes), tr. Mulligan, Robert W., McGlynn, James V., and Schmidt, Robert W. Chicago: Regnery.Google Scholar
Aquinas, Thomas 1975 Summa Contra Gentiles (5 volumes), tr. Pegis, Anton C., Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Bassinger, David 1984 “Miracles as Violations: Some Clarifications,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 22: 17.Google Scholar
Davies, Brian 2011 Aquinas on God and Evil, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Freddoso, Alfred 1994 “God’s General Concurrence with Secondary Causes: Pitfalls and Prospects,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 68: 131156.Google Scholar
Hume, David 2000 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Beauchamp, Tom L. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).Google Scholar
Larmer, Robert 2004 “Miracles and Overall: An Apology for Atheism?,” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 43: 555568.Google Scholar
McCabe, Herbert 2000a “A Modern Cosmological Argument,” in Davies, Brian (ed.), Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 196201.Google Scholar
McCabe, Herbert 2000b “God, Evil, and Divine Responsibility,” in Davies, Brian (ed.), Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 614624.Google Scholar
McCabe, Herbert 2005 “Evil,” in God Matters, London and New York: Continuum Press: 2538.Google Scholar
Odegard, Douglas 1982 “Miracles and Good Evidence,” Religious Studies 18: 3746.Google Scholar
Overall, Christine 1985 “Miracles as Evidence Against the Existence of God,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 23: 347353.Google Scholar
Overall, Christine 1997 “Miracles and God: A Reply to Robert A. H. Larmer,” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 36: 741752.Google Scholar
Overall, Christine 2003 “Miracles and Larmer,” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 42: 123135.Google Scholar
Overall, Christine 2006 “Miracles, Evidence, Evil, and God: A Twenty Year Debate,” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 45: 355366.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard 1968 “Miracles,” Philosophical Quarterly 18: 320328.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard 1977 “The Problem of Evil,” in Brown, Stuart C. (ed.), Reason and Religion, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press: 81102.Google Scholar
Walker, Ian 1982 “Miracles and Violations,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 13: 103108.Google Scholar