Following from David Hume's argument against miracles, the principle of “analogy” came to dominate biblical scholarship: because miracles don’t happen today, we can infer, by analogy, that healings and miracles in the Bible also never happened. As a result, alternative explanations were sought for why biblical texts reported experiences, which the critics believed never happened. Today, however, an increasing number of scholars recognize that the principle of analogy works better in the opposite direction: overwhelming evidence shows that healings and miracles similar to those performed by Jesus and his disciples are happening today. Therefore, by analogy, we have no reason to dismiss the accounts recorded in the Gospels and the Book of Acts. The cumulative evidence demands a paradigm shift away from naïve skepticism about accounts to their critical exploration.
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Craig S. Keener (PhD, Duke University) is F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of the New Testament at
Asbury Theological Seminary. He is especially known for his work as a New Testament scholar on Bible
background (commentaries on the New Testament in its early Jewish and Greco-Roman settings). Craig
has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society and has written thirty-three books and
more than seventy academic articles. His most recent works include Galatians, New Cambridge Bible
Commentary (Cambridge, 2018); Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (4 vols., 4559 pages; Baker
Academic, 2012-2015); and Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (Baker Academic,
2011).
Rick Davy James, PhD, serves as publisher for Ratio Christi Press. Before joining Ratio Christi, Rick
served with the ministry of Cru for 35 years as a conference speaker, campus apologist, as well as the
publisher and founder of CruPress. His books include Jesus Without Religion (InterVarsity Press, 2006);
A Million Ways to Die (Cook, 2010); and Watch (NavPress, 2017).
rcpress@ratiochristi.org
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