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Title: Miracles by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0-06-065301-9 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.74 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Brilliant Preliminary Examination of Miracles
Comment: The acclaimed logic of C.S. Lewis displayed in _Miracles: A Preliminary Study_ reveals much more than the author's genius. Intended to examine the great crux of Christianity, miracles, Lewis also contributes a relevant and thorough view of God and nature.
Lewis first proposes two basic attitudes towards the natural world: (1) Naturalism - a worldview that suggests a closed natural system. "Any reality beyond what can be perceived by the five senses lacks plausability" (Duriez, 2000). (2) Supernaturalism - a worldview that views the universe as a dependent creation of God. "Time, space, and geometry are all God's creation, and these only exist now because he chose to make them out of nothing" (Duriez, 2000).
Ultimately, Lewis concludes, "if naturalism is true, miracles are impossible. If supernaturalism is true, miracles are possible and, indeed, to be expected" (Duriez, 2000).
Much of Lewis' background in his study of miracles originated in the attention he gave to _Theism and Humanism_, the Gifford Lectures for 1914.
Readers should understand that Lewis wrote _Miracles_ as a preliminary examination based on his own incomplete research and thoughts on God and nature. Therefore, the book should never be criticized for its loose ends. It stands as one of the most thoughtful and thorough treatises of the concept.
Rating: 5
Summary: Really 4.5 stars
Comment: This book by CS Lewis was probably his most philosophical work. As such, it is not a light read at all and would probably prove difficult for beginners who have not been exposed to heavily philosophical material. But for those who want a highly intellectual philosophical discussion of the possibility of miracles, this book is certainly worthy of one's attention.
There are a number of strengths to this book which continue to make the book solidly relevant better than forty years after the revised edition came out. Lewis cuts to the heart of the matter very quickly in asserting that rejection of miracles apriori is a common attitude that at its core, is anti-intellectual. Attempts to base rejection of miracles on probabilities, as Hume tried to do, are philosophically untenable and require a betrayal of basic realities that are universally accepted.
Lewis then systematically dismantles the worldview that tends to most cradle apriori miracle rejection, naturalism. He compellingly shows that naturalism is a worldview that cannot stand up to philosophical scrutiny. Key to Lewis's presentation is his argument that naturalism can be demonstrated to be false in its complete rejection of supernaturalism merely by the reality of reason. Logic and reason of the mind, by themselves, are supernatural acts that cannot be explained or accounted for in nature, as naturalism demands. Supernaturalism, according to Lewis is not only possible, but pervasive since the act of logical thinking itself is supernatural in origin.
Lewis then eloquently argues that the relationship between nature and the supernatural are not hostile, but complementary. In Lewis's view, nature is quite pliable to accommodate and assimilate supernatural acts in ways that do not bring the kind of chaos and randomness that many naturalists believe to be reprehensible relative to the 'invasion' of nature by alleged supernatural acts. Lewis persuasively demonstrates that this concern is bogus.
Once the reality, possibility, and plausibility of miracles has been established philosophically, Lewis moves to classifying the Biblical miracles as either old creation or new creation miracles. Here, readers might be a bit disappointed by the presentation. Those looking for an evidential defense of miracles in general or any specific miracle in particular will not find it here. This is a philosophical presentation that is chiefly concerned with whether miracles are possible and/or probable. It is not an evidential defense of the possibility of any specific miracle. Lewis's central point is that human beings are disinclined towards believing in the inherent possibility of miracles for reasons that are not intellectually honest and calls for a fresh reappraisal of the possibility of miracles with a fresh attitude of open mindedness and a sincere commitment to soberly seek the truth absent bias. On this point, he does very well.
I noted that I thought the book deserved 4.5 stars rather than a full blown 5 stars. There are two main reasons why this is. First, his discussion of the Incarnation, while fascinating, was mostly off topic. The focus of Lewis's discussion was not on the miraculous nature of the Incarnation, but on its meaning to the believer and its relationship to nature. The discussion is good, but in a book on miracles, I found it to be misplaced. Second, and perhaps more crucial, is that Lewis succumbs to the very ad hoc skepticism that he argues so passionately against. Without elaboration, Lewis introduces the idea of 'Hebrew mythology' as being behind at least some of the miracles described in the Old Testament (Jonah and the whale being one). Why Lewis believes that some Biblical miracles are genuine while others are mythological is something he doesn't discuss. But the reader gets the sense that by taking this position, Lewis is caving in to the very kind of apriori rejection he repeatedly and rightly condemns throughout the book. Lewis's central argument is therefore undermined by his own unwarranted and unexplained backtracking from his own position.
But because this slip of reason is confined to only one or two paragraphs of the book, it is a weakness that while noteworthy and unfortunate, is not fatal to his argument. One who remains skeptical about the viability of miracles should consider that Lewis revised this book back in 1960 (in response to the arguments of Anscombe) and to date, there has been no compelling rebuttal to its tenets. Attempts to erect a solid rebuttal have been presented and then systematically refuted as erroneous and mostly illogical. As a result, this book has stood the test of time and remains a compelling argument that should provide great comfort and assurance to those who believe the Biblical miracles on faith, but wonder whether this belief can also be grounded in reason and philosophical argument. It can, and we should expect nothing less from the Creator who not only created nature and supernaturally intervenes in nature, but who also created perfect logic and reason.
Rating: 5
Summary: A brilliantly argued work
Comment: Miracles, while not a perfect book, is certainly an excellent one, in which C.S. Lewis is at his philosophical best. It's not an easy read, by any means, but grinding through it is worth the effort. Recently, another review (by Widger) has widely misconstrued Lewis' argument in the first few chapters, so I would like to use this space, to help "hinder the hindrances" to a very good book.
Widger makes three inadequate criticisms against Lewis' argument. The second and third basically amount to the same critique, so I'll group them together.
1.)Widger says, "First, although he is right that a logical ground for a belief is not the same kind of cause as 'non-rational causation' and although he is also right that a belief being physically caused would not mean that it was proved, it does not follow that having a physical cause would ipso facto prove falsehood."
2.)Widger claims Lewis is arguing to the supernatural through ignorance, and then elucidates some problems with arguing from ignorance.
1.) Lewis never says that having a physical cause proves falsehood ipso facto. He makes this clear by talking about human thought as the border of two frontiers. He says it can be physically accounted for in the brain, but that the brain itself can never give a fully adequate account of reasoning. Just because the water in a fishbowl always moves when the fish moves, doesn't mean the fish is the water. Or that all the movements of the water can be fully explained by the water itself.
2.) Lewis is not arguing from ignorance; he's arguing from reason. He's saying you could never give a complete account of reason through irrational causation. Saying you could would be like saying you could have a round triangle. Now a person can always say, "Well, since you haven't seen every shape in the world, you can't really say there is no such a thing as a round triangle," but it's only another testament to reason that we can declare that statement to be foolishness (And if a person can't see that, it's no use arguing with them). Lewis' whole point is that the very thing we mean by reason, cannot arise from what we mean by irrationality. Saying he is only arguing from ignorance is merely ignoring his argument. If you want to see this argument developed further, read the book, not a review of it. It's quite a fascinating bit of thinking.
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Title: The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060652969 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060652950 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060652934 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis ISBN: 0156329301 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 29 September, 1971 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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