The Power of God and Miracles

European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (3):247--266 (2015)
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Abstract

In this paper we explicate the notion of a miracle and highlight a suitable ontological framework for it. Our proposal draws on insights from Aquinas’s discussion of miracles and from the modern ontology of powers. We argue that each substance possesses a characteristic set of natural powers and dispositions which are operative or become manifest in the right circumstances. In a miracle divine intervention activates the fundamental disposition inherent in each creature to be responsive to God’s call. Thus, a miracle brings something about which a substance’s set of natural powers and dispositions could not bring about by itself.

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Georg Gasser
Universität Augsburg

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