Tillich’s views on Miracles:
Approach to miracles: Anti-realist
Hollands definition of a miracle: Miracles are ‘’ an event which’’
1. “is astonishing, unusual, shaking, without contradicting the rational structure of reality’’
2. ‘’ points to the mystery of being, expressing its relation to us in a definite way’’
3. A ‘’sign event’’ within a religious experience
Overview: To Tillich a miracle is
1. A symbol
2. Exist only within a religious realm
3. subjective
4. Tell us something about God/ Gods nature
5. DO NOT obstruct/ violate natural law
6. ‘astonish’ us and cause us to ‘re-envision and re-establish’ our ‘inner relation to the ground of’
our ‘being’
To Tillich Miracles are of religious significant because of the impression it makes on us and what
it can tell us about God. He focuses his approach on Jesus Miracles in the bible and what they
tell us about Who God is and how we can live and learn using stories of miracles from the Bible.
E.g. in Mark 2: 1-12 Jesus heals a paralysed man, suggesting that he has the authority to forgive
sins (the view that illness was caused by sin was a common one in Jesus’ time)
For Tillich miracles reveal God to people, and this revelation causes an ecstatic overwhelming
experience for the recipient.
Tillich’s view of miracles is Anti-realist because:
-there is no commitment to the idea of God as being who from a transcendent realm intervenes to bring
about a miracle
- no law of nature is violated
Others would observe the same events but not see them as miracles
Criticisms of Tillich
– Tillich’s approach with signs, though it may survive the criticisms put forward by David Hume by
avoiding taking miracles literally therefore does not survive the criticisms of traditional theists such as C
S Lewis
Approach to miracles: Anti-realist
Hollands definition of a miracle: Miracles are ‘’ an event which’’
1. “is astonishing, unusual, shaking, without contradicting the rational structure of reality’’
2. ‘’ points to the mystery of being, expressing its relation to us in a definite way’’
3. A ‘’sign event’’ within a religious experience
Overview: To Tillich a miracle is
1. A symbol
2. Exist only within a religious realm
3. subjective
4. Tell us something about God/ Gods nature
5. DO NOT obstruct/ violate natural law
6. ‘astonish’ us and cause us to ‘re-envision and re-establish’ our ‘inner relation to the ground of’
our ‘being’
To Tillich Miracles are of religious significant because of the impression it makes on us and what
it can tell us about God. He focuses his approach on Jesus Miracles in the bible and what they
tell us about Who God is and how we can live and learn using stories of miracles from the Bible.
E.g. in Mark 2: 1-12 Jesus heals a paralysed man, suggesting that he has the authority to forgive
sins (the view that illness was caused by sin was a common one in Jesus’ time)
For Tillich miracles reveal God to people, and this revelation causes an ecstatic overwhelming
experience for the recipient.
Tillich’s view of miracles is Anti-realist because:
-there is no commitment to the idea of God as being who from a transcendent realm intervenes to bring
about a miracle
- no law of nature is violated
Others would observe the same events but not see them as miracles
Criticisms of Tillich
– Tillich’s approach with signs, though it may survive the criticisms put forward by David Hume by
avoiding taking miracles literally therefore does not survive the criticisms of traditional theists such as C
S Lewis
