Het wonder in de onttoverde samenleving

Samenvatting

Even in our modern society people seem to be fascinated by miracles. Miracles are the subject matter of popular television shows. Quite a number of books, inspired by C.G. Jung, aim at assisting people in recognizing miracles and in integrating these in their personal lives. Furthermore the number of people, willing to accept miracles for real, is growing: in 1991 31% of the Dutch thought miracles a possibility, in 2002 43% showed this opinion. How is this possible in a society seemingly devoid of magic? This is possible because magic is not banished from all levels in society to the same degree. According to Weber modernization on the institutional level was more complete than on the level of personal thought. This is borne out by research on the acceptance of modern science. In the year 2000 for instance 35% of the Dutch declared that to much trust was put in science and not enough in intuition and faith.