Antiquitopia

Augustine discusses why seemingly unnatural things--like miracles, omens, and portents--are in fact natural. The argument is based upon the omnipotence of God. God creates all things by willing them. The process of willing is a natural consequence of God's omnipotence. If all things occur by God's will, and all things that occur by God's will naturally occur, then all things are natural: there can be no unnatural occurrences. His argument concerning the naturalness of portents is against his favorite punching-bag throughout the City of God, Varro (he is his favorite opponent, however, because he is one of the most formidable): For how can an event by contrary to nature when it happens by the will of God, since the will of the great Creator assuredly is the nature of every created being? ( City of God 21.8) While this somewhat recapitulates my summary, it takes things a step further. It is not just that all things willed (created) by God are natural because creation...

"So did Creusa cry; her wailing filled my father's house. But even then there comes a sudden omen--wonderful to tell: between the hands, before the faces of his grieving parents, over Iulus' head there leaps a lithe flametip that seems to shed a radiance; the tongue of fire flickers, harmless, a plays about his soft hair, grazes his temples. Shuddering in our alarm, we rush to shake the flames out of his hair and quench the holy fire with water. But Anchises raised his glad eyes to the stars and lifted heavenward his voice and hands: 'O Jupiter, all-able one, if you are moved by any prayers, look on us. I only ask you this: if by our goodness we merit it, then, Father, grant to us your help and let your sign confirm these omens.'" (Virgil, Aeneid 2.920-937; trans. Mandelbaum; cf. Fitzgerald translation in which the line numbering is 2.888-901) When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven li...