Date
9-17-2026
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics (MA)
Chair
Ben Shaw
Keywords
Resurrection of Jesus, Historical Jesus, Resurrection hypothesis, Naturalism, Supernaturalism, Historical methodology, Inference to the best explanation, Minimal Facts Approach, Postmortem appearances, Naturalistic explanations, Hallucination hypothesis, Bereavement hallucinations, Swoon hypothesis, Conspiracy hypothesis, Cognitive dissonance, Explanatory power, Explanatory scope, Historiography, Philosophy of miracles, Miracle claims, Early Christianity, Pauline conversion, James the brother of Jesus
Disciplines
Religion
Recommended Citation
Youngwood, Michael A., "The Resurrection and the Death of Naturalism: A Philosophical and Historical Defense of a Supernatural Event" (2026). Masters Theses. 1540.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/1540
Abstract
This thesis evaluates the resurrection of Jesus as a historical hypothesis within a comparative historiographical framework. Rather than presupposing either naturalism or supernaturalism, the study distinguishes metaphysical commitments from historical methodology and evaluates competing explanations according to consistent criteria derived principally from C. Behan McCullagh’s account of historical explanation. After establishing the historical phenomena requiring explanation, the study examines several principal naturalistic hypotheses, including hallucination, legendary development, apparent death, and conspiracy, before evaluating the resurrection hypothesis according to the same standards. The analysis considers explanatory scope, explanatory power, plausibility, coherence, consistency with background knowledge, and freedom from ad hoc assumptions. Although the naturalistic hypotheses provide possible explanations for particular elements of the evidence, each requires additional explanatory mechanisms to account for the cumulative historical phenomena. The resurrection hypothesis proposes a single causal event capable of accounting for those phenomena within a unified explanatory framework, while its principal liability remains the extraordinary character of divine causation. The study concludes that, when evaluated according to consistent historiographical criteria, the resurrection hypothesis provides the most comprehensive, coherent, and explanatorily adequate account of the established historical phenomena. This conclusion is offered as a reasoned historical judgment rather than a claim to absolute demonstration.
