Author Description

Though archaeological and inscriptional finds have stimulated the study of ancient religions, historical methods for interpreting new data have not kept pace. In this provocative book, noted scholar Howard C. Kee proposes a historical method that more faithfully portrays religious phenomena by focusing on the world-views, attitudes, and feelings of the recorders of events and of the people whose acts they record. He illustrates his method with a detailed study of the ancient attitudes toward one highly significant aspect of classical and early Christian works--the miracle. Kee begins by critically analyzing the historical methods used in history of religions from the Enlightenment to the present. He then explores the evolution of the Graeco-Roman Asklepios and Isis cults, with their changing views of healing and attendant tradition of miracle. This leads him to a thorough examination of the miracle tradition in early Christianity and in non-Christian religions of the same period. He finds that Mark portrays miracle as part of the apocalyptic world-view; that Matthew and Luke were influenced by literary genres through the historians Suetonius, Tacitus, and Josephus; that the symbolic nature of miracle is central to John, as it was for Plutarch writing about Isis. By showing the diverse meanings of miracle for each Evanglist, in light of changing cultural climates and literary styles, values, and assumptions, Kee makes a convincing case for his plea to understand the past through sensitivity to its own rich and various contexts.