Now available to read, two articles from the upcoming December 2005 HPR:
Superstition and Unscientific Medicine: A Thomistic Analysis, by Kevin G. Rickert
For St. Thomas Aquinas, science (even though it was rather crude in his day) was the key to understanding superstition. Superstitious belief, according to St. Thomas, is a false belief about ordinary natural events, a belief that is contrary to what we know scientifically. For example, if I believe that blowing on dice before rolling them will help me to get double sixes, this belief is superstitious, because there is no reason to think that there is any genuine cause/effect relationship between my breath and the way the dice will land. Likewise, if I believe that chiropractic treatment will cure my cancer, even though there is no scientific evidence that it can produce that effect, I am making an act of faith, not in God, but in a chiropractor or chiropractic treatment.
The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Eucatastrophe, by James Flint
In 1944, in a letter to his son, Tolkien cited an example of “eucatastrophe” from The Hobbit. It is towards the end of the book, at the Battle of the Five Armies, when the day appears lost for the dwarfish, elven, and human forces, about to be overwhelmed by hordes of goblins and wolves. In near-despair, the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, glances to the West, where the sun is setting, along, it would seem, with all hope for the future. Tolkien records what happens next: “Bilbo looked round. He gave a great cry: he had seen a sight that made his heart leap, dark shapes small yet majestic against the distant glow. ‘The Eagles! The Eagles!’ he shouted. ‘The Eagles are coming!’” Coming to help. Everything was going to turn out all right.
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