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Historians and Miracle Claims

Historians and Miracle Claims Most biblical scholars and historians hold that the investigation of a miracle report lies outside of the rights of historians acting within their professional capacity. In this essay, I challenge this position and argue to the contrary. A definition of history should not a priori exclude the possibility of investigating miracle claims, since doing so may restrict historians to an inaccurate assessment of the past. Professional historians outside of the community of biblical scholars acknowledge the frequent absence of a consensus; this largely results from conflicting horizons among historians. If this is the present state among professionals engaged in the study of non-religious history, it will be even more so with historians of Jesus. Finally, even if some historians cannot bring themselves to grant divine causation, they, in principle, can render a verdict on the event itself without rendering a verdict on its cause. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Brill

Historians and Miracle Claims

Licona, Michael R.
Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus , Volume 12 (1-2): 106 – Nov 20, 2014
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References (7)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Articles
ISSN
1476-8690
eISSN
1745-5197
DOI
10.1163/17455197-01202002
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Most biblical scholars and historians hold that the investigation of a miracle report lies outside of the rights of historians acting within their professional capacity. In this essay, I challenge this position and argue to the contrary. A definition of history should not a priori exclude the possibility of investigating miracle claims, since doing so may restrict historians to an inaccurate assessment of the past. Professional historians outside of the community of biblical scholars acknowledge the frequent absence of a consensus; this largely results from conflicting horizons among historians. If this is the present state among professionals engaged in the study of non-religious history, it will be even more so with historians of Jesus. Finally, even if some historians cannot bring themselves to grant divine causation, they, in principle, can render a verdict on the event itself without rendering a verdict on its cause.

Journal

Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus – Brill

Published: Nov 20, 2014

Keywords: criteria; historical Jesus; method; methodological naturalism; miracles

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