The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Donald A. Crosby

Description

Miracles are usually regarded as an intrusion of a supernatural force upsetting the normal workings and laws of the universe, but if one is attentive to the natural world, one can instead find miracles beneath the surface of everyday existence. This outlook is part of Donald A. Crosby's religious naturalism, which he terms Religion of Nature, a belief system that posits the natural world to be the only world, without any underlying or transcending supernatural being, presence, or power. In The Extraordinary in the Ordinary, Crosby explores seven types of everyday miracles, such as time, language, and love, to show that the miraculous and ordinary are not opposed to each other. Rather, it is when we acknowledge the sacred depths and dimensions of everyday existence that we recognize the miracles that constantly surround us.
Preface

1. Two Concepts of Miracle

Miracles in the Abrahamic Traditions
Miracles in Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism
Why Miracles Are Prominent in Religious Traditions and Outlooks
Miracles of a Different Sort: Quotidian Miracles
Conclusion

2. Passage of Time

Extent of Time
Time and Change
Time as Creation and Destruction
Time and Causality
Conclusion

3. History of Histories

Galactic History
Earth History
Life History
Human History
Rethinking the Concept of Miracle
Conclusion

4. Individual Consciousness

Materiality and Mentality
Creations of Consciousness
Conscious Freedom
An Ethical Implication
Conclusion

5. Spoken and Written Language

Abstraction and Selection
Public Communication and Private Cogitation
Speech and Speaking
The Miracle of Metaphor
Conclusion

6. Immensity of the World

The Extremely Small
The Extremely Large
Profusion and Diversity of Life Forms on Earth
The Role of Humans
Conclusion

7. Power of Imagination

Imagination and Natural Science
Imagination and Literature
Conclusion

8. Ideal of Love

Instinctive Love
Self-Love and Love for Others
The Friendship Aspect of Love
Love and Work
Love and Justice

Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Philosophy of religion
• Comparative religion

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 30 mars 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438464619
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Extraordinary in the Ordinary
The Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Seven Types of Everyday Miracle
DONALD A. CROSBY
Cover image © Diego.cervo | Dreamstime.com
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Crosby, Donald A., author.
Title: The extraordinary in the ordinary : seven types of everyday miracle / by Donald A. Crosby.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031423 (print) | LCCN 2017004916 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438464596 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438464619 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Miracles. | Cosmogony. | Naturalism—Religious aspects. | Nature—Religious aspects.
Classification: LCC BL487 .C76 2017 (print) | LCC BL487 (ebook) | DDC 202/.117—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031423
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Pam
Beloved Companion of My Days
Perhaps at the precise moment at which I see a butterfly emerge from a cocoon, a switch is flipped, and what was, a second before, a purely biological event suddenly fills me with a conviction that all life is a miraculous transformation.
. . . . . . . .
The secret of life is in plain sight. If we observe with a reverent eye, we may realize that all events, persons, and things are at once ordinary and sacred, factual and sacramental. In a world experienced as sacred, the miracle of the bread and wine is that bread remains bread and wine remains wine. And an Indigo Bunting may be enough to inspire a never-ending quest for the sacred.
—Sam Keen
Contents
P REFACE
C HAPTER 1 Two Concepts of Miracle
Miracles in the Abrahamic Traditions
Miracles in Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism
Why Miracles Are Prominent in Religious Traditions and Outlooks
Miracles of a Different Sort: Quotidian Miracles
Conclusion
C HAPTER 2 Passage of Time
Extent of Time
Time and Change
Time as Creation and Destruction
Time and Causality
Conclusion
C HAPTER 3 History of Histories
Galactic History
Earth History
Life History
Human History
Rethinking the Concept of Miracle
Conclusion
C HAPTER 4 Individual Consciousness
Materiality and Mentality
Creations of Consciousness
Conscious Freedom
An Ethical Implication
Conclusion
C HAPTER 5 Spoken and Written Language
Abstraction and Selection
Public Communication and Private Cogitation
Speech and Speaking
The Miracle of Metaphor
Conclusion
C HAPTER 6 Immensity of the World
The Extremely Small
The Extremely Large
Profusion and Diversity of Life Forms on Earth
The Role of Humans
Conclusion
C HAPTER 7 Power of Imagination
Imagination and Natural Science
Imagination and Literature
Conclusion
C HAPTER 8 Ideal of Love
Instinctive Love
Self-Love and Love for Others
The Friendship Aspect of Love
Love and Work
Love and Justice
Conclusion
N OTES
W ORKS C ITED
I NDEX
Preface
T he deepest source of attentive awareness of the world is a keen and unremitting sense of wonder. This sense is usually extremely active in childhood, but it is apt to fade and be impoverished in adults. It does so largely, we can surmise, because the world, once exciting and new, becomes all too familiar and filtered through encrusted attitudes and expectations. A world over brimming with promises of fresh discoveries and enticing new experiences for the child can become largely dull and uninteresting for the adult. We adults are liable to conclude that we have seen it all before and that uplifting new insights and discoveries are bound to be rare in days weighed down with enervating repetition and habit.
“Been there, and done that” is often our unconscious motto and outlook. The path of our adult lives has become so trampled with routine that we no longer take notice of the untrod byways of wonder and imagination that beckon on every side. And just beneath the hardened surface of what we might tend to experience as a tedious daily path, there is much that is enthralling and wonderful if we can only learn to develop the openness of heart and mind to bring it startlingly into view.
I say “startlingly” because this renewed way of seeing can come not only as a fascinating but also as a shocking revelation of all that we have formerly left out of account and failed to perceive. It makes us aware of having trudged mindlessly and incuriously through a world of dazzling depth and mystery and of having little sense of what is implicit in all that we have formerly taken for granted. We have been oblivious to what awaits us in the way of freshness and wonder, insensitive to what can rightly be called the miracles of everyday life, the dimensions of the extraordinary that await discovery under the wrappings of the ordinary.
A process of life blind to miracles of the everyday is analogous to being thrown into a pitch-dark room. One has little sense of what the room contains. Murky shapes and shadows blur the colors, contours, and arrangements of its furnishings. One may find a way over time to move routinely among these shapes and shadows, but with little understanding of what they distort and conceal. Consider the difference of perception when the lights are switched on! One is suddenly made aware of what was hitherto concealed from view, aware now of it in its true colors, forms, and designs.
To be unattuned to the miracles of everyday life is like this experience of the dark room brought to light. One can continue to stumble in the murk of what is begrudgingly tolerated as the commonplace and routine. Or one can become acutely receptive to how extraordinary everything in life and experience becomes when encountered with an enlightened sensibility, a charmed and sometimes trembling consciousness of how awesome the world is in its multiple manifestations and dimensions. I use the word trembling because not all experiences of miracle are reassuring and benign. Some can be terrifying.
If we conceive broadly of miracles as powerful inducements to wonder, a raging forest fire, tumultuous hurricane, or mighty volcanic eruption is certainly wondrous to behold. Each of them is also frighteningly dangerous and destructive. The wonder they induce can have the salutary effect, however, of bringing to our minds the incredibly powerful forces at work in the world and the marvel of our being conscious participants in the majesty of the world. The terrifying ferocity of such miracles can sharpen our sense of what it means to be alive for the short span of our existence. Their jolting impact can challenge us to make the most of our brief lives, especially with respect to the effects for good our lives can have for others, both human and nonhuman.
The difference in attitude and perception I am talking about is also somewhat like first examining an elegant tapestry from its underside or gazing at the intricate insides of a laptop computer when they are opened to view. There is much more here than the familiar surface portrayal or simple outer structure of which we were earlier aware. The complex technique of tapestry weaving or the marvel of computer conception, creation, and operation is brought vividly into view when we look at the tapestry from a radically different angle or begin to contemplate the inner workings of the computer and try to comprehend how it can do what it amazingly but routinely does. In similar fashion, I contend, if we strip away the outer facade of the ordinary, we can uncover the deep-lying fascinations, challenges, and mysteries of the extraordinary, the captivating wonders and miracles that suffuse everyday life.
Am I entitled to call such things miracles ? I believe that I am, because we have long mistakenly associated miracles only with sudden interruptions of the ordinary processes of the world by divine persons, presences, or powers residing outside the world; with interruptions or interventions that upset the ordinary laws of nature or make use of them in wholly unnatural, unexpected ways. I discuss this familiar and usually assumed conception of miracle at some length in the first chapter of this book, giving examples of how it is depicted and how it functions in the three Abrahamic religions, in Bhakti Hinduism, and in Mahayana Buddhism, and offering explanations of why this conception is so prevalent in religions in general. I call this commonly assumed conception the conventional idea of miracle.
I go on to contrast this concept with the quite different meaning of miracle explicated and emphasized in this book. My thesis throughout is that the extraordinary need not be set in sharp contrast with the ordinary but rather lies snugly within the womb of the ordinary. I therefore direct attention to specific examples of the innumerable ways in which the extraordinary, wondrous, and miraculous are made evident in the ordinary, immanent, day-to-day aspects and events of the world.
For me, as for the English theologian Nicholas Lash, there is a kind of “Easter in Ordinary” when the world is properly perceived. 1 Lash is a Christian theist who gives central place to Easter as the day of Jesus’s recounted resurrection from the dead. The promise and hope of this resurrection open up, for him, a transformative and renewing power applying to every aspect of the world—a singular gift of divine s