Miracles

June 1, 2016

Believe them or not, reports of miracles have cultural significance. In this new book, editor Hayes (archivist, the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province, PA; The Making of Modern Immigration) and many other scholars provide A-Z essays on a host of people, places, and things (C.S. Lewis, Caribbean voodoo, amulet) connected to supernatural claims throughout history. Each entry provides recommended readings, with Hayes noting, "It has been well over a century since the last attempt of assembling a similar volume," citing E. Cobham Brewer's A Dictionary of Miracles: Imitative, Realistic and Dogmatic as this volume's precursor. VERDICT An illuminating survey course in world miracles.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
Miracles can be defined as actual events that go beyond the known laws of nature, having been produced by a god, deity, or supernatural power either directly or via the intercession of a holy person, pilgrimage to a sacred place, or contact with a sacred object or relic. Aspiring to be more than just a catalog of such occurrences, this new reference work seeks to place miracles in their religious, geographical, and historical context.The overwhelming majority of entries address topics drawn from Roman Catholicism. Although not before culled together into a discrete volume on miracles, these topics have been thoroughly treated in other Catholic dictionaries and encyclopedias. Particularly useful, therefore, are the entries Flight and Levitation as they provide examples of these two phenomena in the miracle traditions of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. Similarly, the entry Fasting discusses its role in several religious traditions as a means to connect to divinity and potential miraculous events. Finally, the entry Trees introduces their pan-religious importance as agents of miracles. Other helpful content includes entries that survey miracles in non-Christian religious traditions (e.g., Hinduism and miracles) as well as geographic areas outside Europe. That said, their brevity is of concern, especially concerning inclusion of new religious movements. The entry on Africa, for example, mentions neither the Miracle Centre of the Church of God Mission International in Nigeria nor Jehu-Appiah, dismissed from the Methodist Church in Ghana but one to whom miracles were credited. In fairness, the editor describes this volume as a ready-reference tool and not a comprehensive guide. He is also correct that it has been over a century since a reference work devoted to miracles has been published. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)