While the present subject of discussion tempts to many an excursion into
particulars, its treatment is restricted to general outlines, with an
aim simply to clarify current ideas of miracle and the supernatural, so
as to find firm holding ground for tenable positions in the present
"drift period" of theology. The chief exception made to this general
treatment is the discussion given to a class of miracles regarded with
as much incredulity as any, yet as capable as any of being accredited as
probably historical events--the raisings of the "dead." The insistence
of some writers on the virgin birth and corporeal resurrection of Jesus
as essential to Christianity has required brief discussion of these
also, mainly with reference to the reasonableness of that demand. As to
the latter miracle, it must be observed that in the Biblical narratives
taken as a whole, whichever of their discordant features one be disposed
to emphasize, the psychical element clearly preponderates over the
physical and material.
J. M. W.
NEW YORK,
April 11, 1903.