Miracles: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion

This volume provides a comparative philosophical investigation into a particular concept from a variety of angles--in this case, the concept of ＂miracle.＂ The text covers deeply philosophical questions around the miracle, with a multiplicity of answers. Each chapter brings its own focus to this multifaceted effort. The volume rejects the primarily western focus that typically dominates philosophy of religion and is filled with particular examples of miracle narratives, community responses, and polemical scenarios across widely varying religious contexts and historical periods. Some of these examples defy religious categorization, and some papers challenge the applicability of the concept ＂miracle,＂ which is of western and monotheistic origin. By examining miracles thru a wide comparative context, this text presents a range of descriptive content and analysis, with attention to the audience, to the subjective experiences being communicated, and to the flavor of the narratives that come to surround miracles. This book appeals to students and researchers working in philosophy of religion and science, as well those in comparative religion.
It represents, in written form, some of the perspectives and dialogue achieved in The Comparison Project’s 2017-2019 lecture series on miracles. The Comparison Project is an enterprise in comparing a variety of religious voices, allowing them to stand in dialogue.

Karen R. Zwier holds a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Her academic work is largely concerned with questions about how--and if--metaphysical claims are engaged by empirical scientific methods. She formerly held faculty positions at Drake University and Iowa State University but has since changed careers and currently works as a software developer.

David L. Weddle (Ph.D., Harvard) is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Colorado College, where he chaired the department and taught courses in philosophy of religion, ethics, comparative religious studies, and American religions. In addition to articles in scholarly journals, he is the author of Miracles: Wonder and Meaning in World Religions (2010) and Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (2017). He is active in community education and, while teaching at Cornell College, he was the moderator for a weekly television program called ＂Ethical Perspectives on the News.＂ His published essays discuss the role of religion in American politics.

Timothy Knepper is Professor of Philosophy at Drake University, where he directs The Comparison Project, a public program in global, comparative religion and local, lived religion. He is the author of books on the future of the philosophy of religion (The Ends of Philosophy of Religion, Palgrave, 2013) and the sixth-century Christian mystic known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (Negating Negation, Wipf & Stock, 2014), as well as a forthcoming textbook on ＂global-critical philosophy of religion＂ (Philosophies of Religion, Bloomsbury, 2022). He is the editor of student-written, photo-narratives about religion in Des Moines (A Spectrum of Faith, Drake Community Press, 2017) and Beijing (Religions of Beijing, Bloomsbury, 2020), as well as The Comparison Project’s lecture and dialogue series on ineffability (Ineffability: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion, Springer, 2017) and death and dying (Death and Dying: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion, Springer, 2019).