In an article in The Times on the church of Our Lady of Victory (September 9), Simone Mizzi, the president of Din l-Art Ħelwa, was quoted as saying: “It was indeed a miracle of divine intervention that the church could still be saved”.

Never mind that there was no sign of divine intervention when countless Catholic churches were destroyed all over Europe during World War II! Neither was divine intervention evident during the earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755. In that catastrophe, 30 churches were destroyed and 15,000 people perished on All Saints Day while Catholics were praying to God during Mass.

During the Mass to commemorate Victory Day, Archbishop Paul Cremona ascribed Malta’s survival in war to divine intervention and the intercession of Il-Bambina.

Historians like Montesquieu, Voltaire, Gibbon, Hume, Herder and Hegel found no evidence of divine intervention in human history. Herder, a Lutheran pastor, saw no providence in history; it was too evil to be divine.

Montesquieu anticipated Voltaire in establishing a philosophy of history independent of supernatural causes. In explaining the course of history, Montesquieu considered only earthly causes and set aside the idea of divine intervention in history. Voltaire, Hume and Gibbon, all grounded in philosophy, sought to reinterpret history in non-theological terms. All three agreed in exposing superstition, rejecting supernatural explanations and identifying progress with the development of knowledge.

Voltaire could see no providential design in the maelstrom of events. He saw history rather as the slow and fumbling advance of man, through natural causes and human effort, from ignorance to knowledge, from miracles to science, from superstition to reason.