A Discourse on Our Saviour’s Miraculous Power of Healing

Thomas Woolston was an English religious writer and Deist who questioned the literal interpretation of biblical miracles. In his work, A Discourse on Our Saviour’s Miraculous Power of Healing (1730), Woolston argued for an allegorical understanding of Jesus's healing miracles, rather than a literal one. This perspective placed him in conflict with traditional religious views and led to his arrest and imprisonment for blasphemy. Woolston's writings contributed to the denial of miracles in the Gospels and played a role in the broader Deist controversy of the 18th century. In Jesus's time, miracles were not necessarily seen as proof of divinity but could validate a person's message or way of life.12