Synopses & Reviews
This book inquires into the controversies over miracles that have fascinated Christians from the Reformation to the twentieth century. Focusing on the period from 1860 to 1930, Robert Bruce Mullin explores the ways preachers, faith healers, psychic researchers, scientists, historians, philosophers, and writers have grappled with issues of the miraculous. He shows how transforming attitudes toward miracles have changed the Anglo-American religious landscape.Fascinating. . . . An] in-depth study of how the notion of the miraculous has evolved in the modern age.-Publishers WeeklyIn this thoughtful, wide-ranging study, Robert Bruce Mullin examines the changing fate of belief in the miraculous. . . . A well-crafted study that no serious student of the age or the issue should fail to engage.-Daniel L. Pals, Church History This is an extremely important and well-written study, and contributes in significant ways to reshaping the discussion of religion in the North Atlantic world in the Gilded Age.-Mark S. Massa, Catholic Historical Review Mullin's work is remarkably intelligent. . . . An] excellent book.-Andrew Greeley, History of ReligionsHow and why the notion of a limited age of miracles lost its commanding place in religious discourse is one of the main themes of Mullin's superbly researched and finely nuanced study. . . . An innovative intellectual history of high caliber.-James H. Moorhead, Theology TodayMullin has managed to spin an impressively thorough account of his subject in such a way that breathes new life into familiar ideas, figures, and developments (while introducing not a few unfamiliar ones) and freshly illumines their ongoing importance in twentieth-century versions of the miracle debate.-R. Marie Griffith, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Synopsis
According to surveys, most Americans today believe in miracles. For many others, however, a belief in miracles seems incompatible with a modern world view. Why does interest in miracles persist even in a secular era? Why are miracles such a controversial part of Western religious thinking? In this fascinating book, Robert Bruce Mullin traces the debate about miracles from the Reformation to the twentieth century, focusing particularly on the years from 1860 to 1930. He examines the way preachers, faith healers, psychic researchers, scientists, historians, philosophers, and literary figures have grappled with issues of the miraculous.
Before the mid-1800s, the author contends, Catholics had defended post-Biblical miracles, while Protestants insisted true miracles were limited to the Biblical era. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the Protestant position had largely collapsed, and two opposing views emerged in its wake. Some Protestants wished to jettison all miracles--even those recorded in the Bible. Others took a new interest in modern miracles, believing that the presence of miracles could help ground contemporary religious faith. This transformation in attitudes toward miracles not only changed the Anglo-American religious landscape and created a new focus of debate, Mullin says, it also opened up a new basis for accord between Protestants and Catholics.