We are either going to have to acquire a license to practice
thaumaturgy and make it work in the public's eyes, or else bring the law down to the realities of living.
There was ever a cautious hesitancy on the part of the clergy to recognize evidence of
thaumaturgy, and the superstitious use of relics.
The fresh light is cast by Leighton's original approach, in his application to the material of the insights of such arcane matters as cabalistics, calendarology, numerology, and, centrally,
thaumaturgy, helpfully explained as 'the performance of wonders' (p.
But within the realm of showbiz
thaumaturgy, they're perfectly acceptable examples of latter-day digital compositing, wherein it's possible to have anything share a frame of film or video with practically anything else.
Considering the fortunes of the Cuban revolution since 1964, this all-purpose
thaumaturgy now can have the effect of underscoring the film's dramatic clumsiness, while at other times it allows viewers to forget the subject matter altogether.
Both assimiliated their subjects into the miracle-working tradition with explicit deference to the example set by Martin.(86) In particular, Genovefa's claim to fame in her own lifetime rested principally upon her
thaumaturgy, for her vita depicts a crowded series of cures, exorcisms, resurrections of the dead and vengeance miracles, not to mention the miraculous provision of food to the populace of Paris starving during a siege, or the prevention of shipping calamities on the Seine.
Likewise dangerous is the use of religious words for
thaumaturgy. That is, sincere though the effort be, one does not create an effect or emotion merely by saying one has it.
(11.) See especially my "Tales of
Thaumaturgy: T'ang Accounts of the Wonder-Worker Yeh Fa-shan," Monumenta Serica 40 (1992): 47-86; cf.
The direction, by Bill Duke, is straightforward and efficient; the production design is a textbook example of low-budget
thaumaturgy. Perhaps the screenplay, which Rassbach developed in collaboration with Ron Milner and Leslie Lee, is a little too purposeful; it strives to make one clear point per scene, with results that veer dangerously toward show-and-tell.
The second chapter, titled "
Thaumaturgy," contains long sections on the forms of
thaumaturgy evidenced in the hagiographies, on spells (including a subsection on the use of scriptures as spells), and on miracles.
Similarly, it is extremely interesting when he says that Chan/Zen incorporates
thaumaturgy and the manipulation of relics to gamer popular support; but he also states that its survival and power depend on struggling against the "subversion" and "alterity" of popular religion.
