WBLG: Jesus 'didn't walk on water or turn water into wine'

Interesting post on Ruth Gledhill's blog this morning about a new book launch in England:

"Lord Archer has written a gospel with the endorsement of the RC church that debunks Jesus' 'nature miracles'. In effect, the two authors say, the turning water into wine, the walking on water and the calming of the storm never happened. Of course, as we reported two years ago, the Catholic Church no longer swears by the truth of the Bible in any case. Nor does any respectable Biblical scholar as a matter of fact. But I am still not sure that most or even many of the laity are aware this, never mind children in Sunday schools or faith schools. Here is one of the early stories starting to appear on the wires about today's launch."

Ruth also points out in the article that the Roman Catholic bishops of Great Britain issued a teaching document a couple of years ago that stated that parts of the bible are not in fact true (like the miracle stories quoted above or the creation account in Genesis...) I'd not heard about that document before.

Read the rest here: Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Jesus 'didn't walk on water or turn water into wine'

Comments

[*Christopher]

Fr. Nick,

Surely not? I can't imagine Pope Benedict giving this the imprimatur. Why is it we're still hung up on miracles? I personally think that Jesus did perform miracles and that such were not simply outside of nature but fulfilled nature's end proleptically, giving a foretaste just as we receive in the Eucharist--hale, health, salvation, everlasting life. I also don't think this necessarily has to be in conflict with science given that God's freedom which is Love is indwelling, but outside of Creation. I wonder if you might offer some thoughts as a scientist.

[Nicholas Knisely]

As a scientist (and more so as a physicist) I've never had any problems believing in the miracles described in the Bible. Quantum Physics (or at least the classical understanding of it) would say that such things are explicitly allowed to occur - they are just highly unlikely. If the Lord of all Creation is walking around, then selecting out a specific outcome of an observation of reality (even if VERY unlikely) is then pretty much even more allowable.

Speaking more as a believer - and one who's spirituality leans towards the mystic end of the spectrum - I've always understood this as something that can only be viewed through eyes of faith. The same eyes that let us see more deeply into the truth of reality than would the eyes of a skeptic.

It's really a modernist behavior though to insist though that something did or did not happen specifically.

[Caelius Spinator]

I couldn't have put your last comment better myself, Fr. Knisely.

And, of course, I can't forget C.S. Lewis' comment that the only unnatural thing about Jesus' miracles were their timing. Nature became very speedy in his presence. Water becomes wine eventually if it waters grapevines, for instance.

I've been reading Bede lately, who has a very mystical but often very convincing exegetical style. From a theological perspective, the miracles stories work far better as allegories if they actually happened, if Jesus really lived in a way in which He could be read deeply rather than the Gospels being an allegorical account of a fairly ordinary life.

[*Christopher]

Fr. Nick,

Yes, it is a modernist preoccupation, at least in part just as Christian fundamentalism often looks like the flip side of scientism. In many ways mixing up facts and faith.

On the other hand, there are matters of context to consider. Jesus' miracles and miracles more widely speaking play an enormous role, in say the African American spirituals, and among the poor and working poor, and among some folks then to assert miracles don't happen and Jesus didn't perform any isn't primarily a matter of modernity but a matter of eschatological hope. The preoccupation with miracles, if not their exact happening, has various roots, not just modernist ones, but contexted ones and is something work-a-day Christians seem to have long been preoccupied with as reading of Patristic and Medieval sources makes clear.

Thanks for offering some insights as a scientist.