Miracles: What is a miracle? Is it an objective reality, a subjective assessment of meaning, or merely a cognitive category? When we speak of miracles across religions, do we even share the same concept? Does “miracle” necessarily connote a divine origin, or can the term apply simply to rare or extraordinary occurrences? Our 2017–2019 series explored these questions from a variety of religious, philosophical, and scientific perspectives. Click on the titles of these events to find descriptions, pictures, audio files, and sometimes also manuscripts and power point presentations.
The calendar below offers a complete listing of our 2017-2018 lectures and dialogues. In time, we will add the 2018-19 lectures and dialogues too.
You can click on the titles of past events to find descriptions, pictures, audio files, and sometimes also manuscripts and power point presentations.
Programming, Fall 2018
| EVENT | SPEAKER | DATE/TIME/LOCATION |
| Miracles as Stories | Kenneth Woodward, Former religion editor at Newsweek (retired 2002) | Thurs. 09/13 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Changed in a Flash: How One Woman Was Struck by Lightning, Talked to God, and Came Back to Dream the Future | Jeffrey Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Thought, Rice University | Thurs. 10/04 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| The Intertwining of Healing and Religion in a Contemporary Chinese American Community | Kin Cheung, Assistant Professor of Asian Religions, Department of Global Religions, Moravian College | Thurs. 10/25 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| The ‘Miracle’ Problem: A Lakota Thought Experiment | Fritz Detwiler, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Adrian College | Thurs. 11/15 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Firsthand Accounts of a Miracle Investigator | Joe Nickell, author of The Science of Miracles: Investigating the Incredible | Thurs. 12/6 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
Programming, Spring 2019
| EVENT | SPEAKER | DATE/TIME/LOCATION |
| What Miracles in the Global South Contribute to Understanding the Human Condition | Bilinda Straight, Professor of Anthropology, Western Michigan University | Thurs. 02/14 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Community Event: Miracles and Medicine | Moderator, Richard L. Deming, MD., Director of the Mercy Cancer Center; Founder and Director of Above + Beyond Cancer | Thurs. 03/07 7:00 p.m. Mercy Hospital, East Tower Conference Rooms 6 and 7 |
| Saintly ‘Miracles’ and Yogic ‘Magic’ in the Bhakti and Sufi Hagiographies of North India | Patton E. Burchett, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, College of William and Mary | Thurs. 03/28 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Miracles in Hasidic Judaism: Changing the Natural Order, or Opening the Eyes To What Is Already There | Nehemia Polen, Professor of Jewish Thought, Hebrew College | Thurs. 04/11 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Final Comparison of Miracles – “Miracles: So What?” | David L. Weddle, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Colorado College Karen Zwier, lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Iowa State University | Thurs. 05/9 7:00 p.m. Cowles Library, Reading Room |
Programming, Fall 2017
| EVENT | SPEAKER | DATE/TIME/LOCATION |
| Miracles: A Philosopher’s Stance | Karen Zwier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Interim Director of The Comparison Project, Drake University | Thurs. 09/14 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Miracles as Transforming Invitations to Wonder & Gratitude: An Islamic Perspective | Umeyye Isra Yazicioglu, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, St. Joseph’s University | Thurs. 10/05 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Does ‘the Biblical God who acts’ really act? Special divine action via quantum mechanics that is objective but not miraculous | Robert J. Russell, Founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley | Thurs. 10/26 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| On the Role of Miracles in the Vimalakirti Sutra in the Early Medieval China | Shi Jingpeng, Minzu University of China, Beijing | Thurs. 11/16 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| A Course in Miracles Workshop | Several local instructors of “A Course in Miracles,” including Debra Landwehr Engle, author of The Only Little Prayer You Need. | Sat. 12/2 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Meredith Hall |
Programming, Spring 2018
| EVENT | SPEAKER | DATE/TIME/LOCATION |
| Above + Beyond Cancer: Stories of Discovery, Recovery, and Transformation | Dr. Richard Deming, Founder & Chairman of Above + Beyond Cancer, Medical Director of Mercy Cancer Center
Yasmina Madden, Assistant Professor of English, Drake University | Thurs. 02/15 7:00 p.m. Cowles Reading Room Cowles Library |
| Naturalism and the Problem of the Unity of Science: How Miracles Help | Mark Harris, Senior Lecturer in Science and Religion, Edinburgh University | Thurs. 03/08 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Fear, Loathing, and Miracles among the Cowherders: Krishna’s Childhood Prodigies | Richard H. Davis, Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Bard College | Thurs. 03/29 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| Fatima: Examining Catholicism’s Greatest Modern Miracle | Michael O’Neill, author of Exploring the Miraculous and creator of the website MiracleHunter.com | Thurs. 04/19 7:00 p.m. Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center |
| “By Whose Authority?”: Polemical and Political Uses of Miracle Stories | David L. Weddle, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Colorado College | Thurs. 05/10 7:00 p.m. Cowles Reading Room Cowles Library |