From: Howard J. Van Till (hvantill@chartermi.net)
Date: Thu May 22 2003 - 11:53:27 EDT
From: Dick Fischer <dickfischer@earthlink.net>
> Can we allow for any supernatural divine action? A resurrection certainly
> seems to call for something extraordinary.
You and I will each make our own choice on such matters.
> Not to be divisive, but would you care to give any NT example (outside the
> resurrection) where "supernatural divine action" might explain the event,
> such as calling forth Lazarus, changing water into wine, a blind man made
> whole, etc.
Unfortunately, we have no empirical access to any of these events. All we
have is a set of narratives, most of them written decades after the events
under scrutiny, narratives whose primary purpose is religious, not to
provide simple matter-of-fact chronicles. That, coupled with our limited
familiarity with the cultural context and the literary conventions of
religious literature of that day, opens the door to the vast diversity of
interpretations now on the table. You and I (and others on this list) will
reach differing conclusions on how best to understand these narratives. I
accept that.
Howard Van Till
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