Miraculous Effect and Devoutness:Two Sides of Religious Beliefs
Miraculous effect(灵验),namely the manifestation of sacredness in belief narrative,is the very thing that bridges up religious beliefs and daily experiences.The analysis of miraculous effect could start from the perspectives of both religious beliefs and daily experiences in the assumption-verifying mode.If miraculous effect was explored in the assumption-verifying mode,the authentic connotation would be misled into the modern scientific norm.The existence of supernatural power and its functioning would be regarded as an assumption pending for empirical vindication,and miraculous effect would become an evidence that could confirm the tentative assumption of supernatural power.However,to the believers,the supernatural world is the precondition of all religious practices and the starting-point of their understanding of all phenomena.Miraculous effect is NOT the result of certain mechanism of knowledge,but the proper way to manifest both the supernatural world and the authentic world.The world of belief is composed of devoutness and miraculous manifestation.Devoutness is the pivotal factor to interpret the miraculous effect within the internal structure of beliefs.This paper is intended to clarify the tendency to misinterpret the miraculous effect in the shadow of modern mode of knowledge production and lead the understanding of the manifestation of sacredness into the original context of beliefs and the view of believers.
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