Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

The Origin of This Book

The Subjects of This Book

Limitations

The Problem

Closing Comments
Part 1: The Ancient Evidence
1. Opening Questions about Early Christian Miracle Claims

Evidence for Jesus’s Miracles

Miracle Claims for Jesus’s Early Movement

Methodological Questions

2. Ancient Miracle Claims outside Christianity

Gentile Greco-Roman Miracle Accounts
Healing Sanctuaries
Pagan Miracle Workers

Early Jewish Miracle Workers

An Authenticating Function of Miracles

Conclusion
3. Comparison of Early Christian and Other Ancient Miracle Accounts

Differences between Early Christian and Most Pagan Miracles
Comparison of Early Christian and Jewish Miracle Accounts
Rabbinic Miracles
Eve’s Detailed Comparisons

Parallels and the Authenticity Question
Healing Sages?
The Supernatural Element Not a Sufficient Parallel
Celestial Prodigies

Conclusion

Part 2: Are Miracles Possible?
4. Antisupernaturalism as an Authenticity Criterion?

Ancient Skepticism toward Miracles
Polybius’s Critique of Sensationalist Historians
Signs in Critical Historians
Ancient Plausibility Structures

Modern Western Skepticism toward Supernatural Phenomena
Our Cultural Limitations
Have We Privileged a Particular Western Worldview?
Conclusion

5. Hume and the Philosophic Questions

What This Chapter Will Address

The Nature of the Questions

Hume’s Argument from Nature
Hume and the Philosophy of Science
Does Science Pronounce on Theology?
Hume, Violations of Natural Law, and Theism
Nature versus Hume
Hume’s Antitheistic Starting Assumptions

Hume’s Epistemology regarding Miracles
Hume on Testimony
Consequences of Such Epistemic Demands for Other Disciplines
Hume versus Normal Logic regarding Witnesses
Rejecting Unusual and Rare Events?
The Theistic Factor
The Circularity of Hume’s Approach
Other Noninductive Elements in Hume’s Approach

Hume’s Critics

Conclusion

6. Developing Hume’s Skepticism toward Miracles

Consequences and Problems of the Humean Consensus
Effects in Philosophy
Effects in Religion and Theology
A Sound Approach?
God Acting in the Natural World?
God Acting in History?
History and Theory
The Religious Factor
Incompatible Religions Claim Miracles?
Disbelief in Miracles as a Dogmatic Assumption?

The Shift in the Western Worldview
A Shift among Scholars
Do Modern People Believe in Miracles?
Conclusion

Part 3: Miracle Accounts beyond Antiquity
7. Majority World Perspectives

Multicultural Miracle Claims and Ethnocentric Prejudices
A Multicultural Approach
Cross-Cultural Readings
Ethnocentric Objections to Miracles
Hume’s Explicit Ethnocentrism

Majority World Voices
Learning from Other Cultures
Widespread Pentecostal Claims in the Majority World
Such Claims Not Limited to Pentecostals
Limitations in My Approach
Studies of Extraordinary Claims in Non-Christian Movements
Limitations of Reports
The Use of Examples
Diverse Christian Supernatural Claims
One Theological Caveat
Conclusion

8. Examples from Asia

Limitations of My Examples

The Philippines

Southeast Asia

South Asia
India
Interviews with Some Indian Ministers
Sri Lanka and Nepal

Indonesia

South Korea

The Pacific

Healings and China
Examples
Answering More Skeptical Perspectives
Visiting Some Chinese Pastors
One Example in 1930s China

Conclusion
9. Examples from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean

Examples in Africa
Healing in Mainline Churches Various Sample Claims from East and Central Africa
Various Sample Claims from West and Southern Africa
Examples in Nigeria
Examples in Mozambique
Congolese Evangelists
Papa Jacques’s Experiences
Mama Jeanne and Others

Examples in Latin America and the Caribbean
Various Cases from South America
Accounts from Cuba
Various Other Latin American and Caribbean Examples
Ecuador
Chile
Conclusion

10. Supernaturalism in Earlier Christian History

Perspectives from the Premodern World
The Patristic Era
The Medieval Period
The Reformers’ Reaction

Perspectives from the Earlier Modern West
Polemic against Miracles
Protestant Healing Reports in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Lourdes and Roman Catholic Healing in the Nineteenth Century
Protestant Healing in the Nineteenth Century
Criticisms and Moderation
Gender and Healings

Supernaturalist Christian Claims in the Early Twentieth-Century West
Dorothy Kerin
James Moore Hickson
Healings in Other Traditional Churches
Early Pentecostalism
Early Pentecostal Testimonies
Early Pentecostal Figures

Conclusion

11. Supernatural Claims in the Recent West

Claims Are Now Common

Samples of Individual Healing Reports
One Modern Healing Narrative
Scientists, Journalists, and Doctors
- Pentecostals and Other Churches
Examples from Interviews in My Circle
Anna’s and Cindy’s Stories
Accounts from Students and Colleagues
Yesenia’s Story
Some Other Individual Healing Claims

Western Healing Ministries in the Past Half Century
Why Include Such Accounts?
T. L. Osborn
Kathryn Kuhlman
Doctors and Kuhlman
Father Ralph DiOrio
Some Less-Conspicuous Ministries

Various Examples from Roman Catholic Sources

Third Wave and Other Recent Sources Emphasizing Healing
Examples from the Vineyard Movement
Global Awakening and New Wine
Examples from Some Charismatic/Third Wave Churches

Listing Some Further Claims

Conclusion

12. Blindness, Inability to Walk, Death, and Nature: Some Dramatic Reports

Why This Chapter’s Focus?
Healing of Blindness
Healings of Blindness in History
Contemporary Reports of Healings of Blindness in Africa
Contemporary Reports of Healings of Blindness in Asia
Contemporary Reports of Healings of Blindness in Latin America and the West

Healing of Those Unable to Walk
Earlier Reports
- Contemporary Reports of Healings in Africa and Asia
Contemporary Reports of Healings in the Western Hemisphere

Raising the Dead
Biblical and Non-Christian Accounts
Alternative Explanations?
Earlier Accounts
Raising Accounts in Africa
Raising of My Wife’s Sister
Mama Jeanne’s Accounts
Other Accounts from Congo
Raising Accounts in Asia
Raising Accounts in the Philippines Raising Accounts in Latin America and the West
Reports from Physicians

Nature Miracles
Limits of Naturalistic Explanations
Limits of Ancient Analogies
Subsequent Analogies
Recent Analogies in Asia and the Pacific
Recent Analogies in Africa
Accounts in the Western Hemisphere

Conclusion

Most modern prejudice against biblical miracle reports depends on David Hume's argument that uniform human experience precluded miracles. Yet current research shows that human experience is far from uniform. In fact, hundreds of millions of people today claim to have experienced miracles. New Testament scholar Craig Keener argues that it is time to rethink Hume's argument in light of the contemporary evidence available to us. This wide-ranging and meticulously researched two-volume study presents the most thorough current defense of the credibility of the miracle reports in the Gospels and Acts. Drawing on claims from a range of global cultures and taking a multidisciplinary approach to the topic, Keener suggests that many miracle accounts throughout history and from contemporary times are best explained as genuine divine acts, lending credence to the biblical miracle reports.