Magic
I learnt a new word to-day. Brennan Manning describes Jesus' turning of water into wine at Cana as thaumaturgic. Is it fair to suggest that a simpler word to use would have been magic? Possibly too simple. A website which I have found (but not explored) says that there are two kinds of magic - thaumaturgic and theurgic. I guess that the former relates to the personal power of the magician, while the latter taps into the latent power of the universe? And maybe Brennan Manning was trying to emphasise that Jesus did the miracle himself, not by any other means.

Which brings me to the point. I am reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. A recent visit to Whitby was the trigger - in particular a clever stunt pulled by English Heritage whereby they had actors wandering about Whitby Abbey pretending to be famous characters from the past. 'Bram Stoker' gave a creditable account of how he came to write Dracula, and included some of the story itself, so, of course, here am I trying to find out more. And a scary story it is. Very, very frightening. But do we not need to be reminded, in our modern, sceptical era, of an extra dimension, which we may call magic, or the supernatural?

So Jesus practised good magic. Is it heretical to put it like that? He did miracles. We do not need to be afraid of bad magic because God's magic is good, and more powerful. CS Lewis talks of magic. Not easy.