Overall and Aquinas on Miracles

Dialogue 55 (1):151-160 (2016)
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Abstract

Christine Overall has argued that miracles, if they exist, would be an evil committed by God and therefore disprove the existence of God. However, her notion of a miracle as an intervention presupposes a view about the relation between God and creation that posits God as an ‘outsider.’ Such a view has not been held by all theists. It was not held by Thomas Aquinas. I show that Aquinas ’s conception is not susceptible to Overall’s criticisms. The upshot is that theists should avoid any view of God as an ‘outsider,’ if they wish to avoid Overall’s criticisms.

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Author's Profile

David Kovacs
Loyola Marymount University

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References found in this work

Summa Contra Gentiles.Thomas Aquinas - 1975 - University of Notre Dame Press.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.Tom L. Beauchamp (ed.) - 1999 - Oxford University Press.
Miracles as evidence against the existence of God.Christine Overall - 1985 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 23 (3):347-353.
Miracles.R. G. Swinburne - 1968 - Philosophical Quarterly 18 (73):320-328.

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