Ewolucja pojęcia cudu we współczesnej teologii fundamentalnej

Abstract

The concept of miracle has always been of crucial importance to the Christian faith. The story of redemption in the Bible was closely connected with extraordinary occurrences attributed to God and the Church in its entire history has often referred to miracles as signs confirming the credibility of its divine origin and mission. While many different ideas of a miracle have been proposed throughout the centuries, the following article presents two formulations of the idea in question – the objectivistic-philosophical approach and the semiological one. Both can be found in the theological literature of the former century. The objectivistic-philosophical approach narrowed down the function of a miracle to an external proof that served as a seal confirming the authenticity and credibility of the divine revelation. With time, it led to increased absolutization of a miracle’s demonstrative value which, as a result, began to be regarded as an argument requiring faith in God from humans. Consequently, the isolated miracle deprived of its divine revelation significance lost its real religious context in which to be set and examined. The evolution in the history and study of religions as well as the new trends in theology postulating a return to biblical roots and to the teachings of the Fathers of the Church have all contributed to the emergence of a new semiological understanding of miracle. The new approach to the Bible amounts to an acknowledgement that a miracle is not merely a part of divine revelation, but in fact it is one of the forms in which God’s salvation plan is implemented. The increased interest in the concept of sign, as far as semiotics and theology are concerned, has deepened the understanding of miracle which, as a sign of God from Someone to someone, appears mainly as a reality closely connected to personal feelings. An analysis of both ideas of miracle indicates that the sign-related approach depicts the complexity of the problem in question in a better and more effective manner.