Blood

The chapter opens once more by an examination of proto-blood miracles in the Islamic and Christian traditions. Within the Christian Domain there is an examination of the healing of the centurion Longinus whom tradition places at the foot of the cross and whose poor eyesight is miraculously healed by contact with the blood of Christ. Reference is made, by contrast, to the blood-clot mentioned in Sura 96 of the Qur’an. The next section surveys Eucharistic miracles such as that of Bolsena in 1263 in which the elevated host at Mass is seen to drip blood. The healing powers of spilled blood by martyred saints such as Thomas Becket are referenced. All this contrasts with the spilling of blood in Islamic sufi narrations, and the spilling of the blood of the famous sufi mystic, al-Hallaj, who was brutally murdered in 922. From a narrative perspective it is emphasised that blood has a universal significance in both the Islamic and Christian traditions, especially from the perspective of the martyrdoms of such saints as Becket, al-Husayn and al-Hallaj whose deaths give rise to many miracles.

Cosmology

This chapter introduces its subject by examining two early cosmological miracles, the standing of the sun at the command of Joshua in the Old Testament and the stilling of sunset and moonrise in the Islamic account by Joshua during the conquest of Jericho.The chapter then surveys and analyses in some depth two major cosmological miracles in the Christian and Islamic traditions:the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima in 1917 and the Splitting of the Moon in the Qur’an. Both miraculous events may be described as ‘proof-events’ designed to underline the truth of messages brought to three children at Fatima in Portugal by the Virgin Mary on the one hand, and by Muhammad to the people of Mecca on the other.

Envoi

This brief conclusion returns to Bernard Lonergan’s taxonomy, adumbrated in his Method in Theology in which he identifies ‘eight functional specialities in theology’. Comparison is made with the phenomenological and anthropological methodology adopted in Islam, Christianity and the Realms of the Miraculous in which an elevenfold narratological sieve is adopted centering on five chosen miraculous types of narrative : food, water, blood, wood and stone, and cosmology. The Envoi identifies a final taxonomy whereby these five topoi might be considered, comprising memory, hope, divine presence. It is stressed at the end of the chapter that the realms and world of the miraculous constitute a world of signs whose meanings are open to interpretation by the phenomenologist, the believer and the atheist but “in very different ways”.

Wood and Stone

The proto-miracles here are those associated with the wooden Ark of Gilgamesh and Noah (Nuh). In the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Qur’anic and Old Testament accounts of the Great Flood the Ark is a symbol of salvation.Miracle in this section may be defined as a direct intervention in human affairs by the divinity or an angel.Within the framework of this section the myth of Atlantis is explored in view of its affinities with the universal Flood story. The next section of this chapter is entitled Ark of the Covenant: the Virgin in the House and it surveys and analyses the stone Christian shrine at Walsingham, the Ka‘ba in Mecca and the miraculous events associated with the building of these two shrines, Walsingham by the Lady Richeldis and the Ka‘ba by Adam and/or Ibrahim and Isma ‘il. In the building of both these shrines the figures of the Angel Gabriel (Jibril), other angels and the Virgin Mary (Maryam) figure powerfully.

Water

The scene in this chapter is again set by a Proto-Miracle, this time entitled Water from the Rock. In both the Qur’an and the Old Testament Moses strikes a rock and produces water for his thirsty followers. The next section embraces Lourdes, Shrines and Healing and deals with the apparitions of the Virgin Mary seen by Bernadette Soubirous, the establishment of a large shrine on the site of these apparitions and the many miraculous healings claimed at Lourdes thereafter by those who visit the shrine and bathe in the waters there. This section also surveys three very different novels which deal with Lourdes by the atheist Emile Zola, the Jewish writer Franz Werfel and the contemporary novelist, Michael Arditti. A comparison is then made with the Islamic well and spring of Zamzam in Mecca and the healings associated with that place. This section outlines the story of Hajar (Hagar), Isma‘il and the miraculous appearance of the spring. The chapter once again concludes with an identification of major themes and motifs.

Food

This chapter begins with a section entitled A Proto-Miracle: Manna from the Desert, which is designed to set the scene for the miracle narratives which follow. The production of manna in the desert by Moses is a miracle narrative common to both the Qur’an and the Old Testament. After this initial section, the chapter goes on to examine the feeding of the 5000/4000 in the New Testament and then the Eucharistic miracles which have been claimed by the Christian tradition in both the medieval and modern age. Such miracles may be compared with that outlined in the next Islamic section which draws on the fifth chapter of the Qur’an, in which Jesus is challenged by his disciples to send ask God to send down a table from Heaven laden with food. Other Islamic miracles drawn from the hadith literature are itemised here. At the end of the chapter a number of metathemes and metamotifs are identified including hunger, testing, manna, bread and Eucharist.

Miracles and Religion

This chapter introduces the subject of miracles in both the Islamic and Christian traditions. It begins with a selective survey of definitions from these traditions and embraces the views of both believers in such phenomena like St. Augustine of Hippo and total sceptics like David Hume, Richard Dawkins and Daniel C. Dennett. It then moves to examine what is termed the Medieval Mindset and under this heading such topics as milieu, continuity and contrasts are considered. The narratological substratum and method of the volume are delineated here, whereby themes and motifs will be identified in the succeeding chapters. Following H.Porter Abbott’s excellent paradigm it is noted that themes will be identified as abstract and motifs will be identified as concrete.