Natural and Supernatural Worlds in the Age of Revolution and Empire (1789–1920)

Between 1789 and 1920, the relationship between Christianity and the concepts of the natural and supernatural underwent dramatic transformations. As most historians have contended, this period saw the rise of modern science, the secularization of society, and a resurgence of supernaturalism in new forms. Understanding how Christianity navigated these shifts requires a careful consideration of the historical and conceptual evolution of the “supernatural,” as well as its interplay with emerging scientific and cultural frameworks.

The Supernatural: Historical Evolution of the Concept

As Henri de Lubac detailed in Surnatural (1946), the term supernaturalis did not enter theological discourse until the ninth century, emerging from Carolingian translations of Pseudo-Dionysius (c. fifth century) and John Scotus Eriugena (c. 810-877). Even then, its usage remained rare until the thirteenth century and did not become widespread until after the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century. The late adoption of the term reflects the premodern worldview, where the “natural” was understood in a theological sense. For early Christians, “nature” referred to the pristine, prelapsarian state of creation—a condition reflecting the uncorrupted image of God.

De Lubac argues that the notion of a self-sufficient human nature, complete with its own natural end, is a relatively recent theological construct that diverges from the unified vision of the Church Fathers and Scholastics. In the early Christian tradition, there was no conception of a purely natural end for human beings separate from the supernatural destiny intended by God. De Lubac contends that theologians like Michael Baius (1513-1589) and Cornelius Jansenius (1585-1638), in their efforts to defend the gratuity of the supernatural, inadvertently introduced a separation between nature and grace that was foreign to earlier Christian thought. This separation led to the hypothesis of a “state of pure nature,” wherein human beings could achieve a natural end without divine grace—a concept that de Lubac finds problematic.

De Lubac’s critique extends to the idea that human nature possesses an intrinsic desire for the beatific vision, a desire that cannot be fulfilled by any natural end. He emphasizes that this innate orientation toward a supernatural destiny does not imply that human nature is already graced; rather, it highlights the gratuitous nature of divine grace that elevates humanity beyond its natural capacities.

By challenging the “system of pure nature,” de Lubac sought to restore a more integrated understanding of the nature-grace relationship, one that acknowledges the inherent openness of human nature to the supernatural without positing an autonomous natural order complete in itself. If true, this approach challenges modern theological constructs that compartmentalize human destiny into natural and supernatural ends, urging a return to a more holistic vision of humanity’s ultimate calling.

The Historical Foundations of “Natural” and “Supernatural”

Alister McGrath, in his recent Natural Philosophy: On Retrieving a Lost Disciplinary Imaginary (2023), highlights Albertus Magnus’s (c. 1200-1280) pivotal role in shaping this dichotomy in the 13th century. Drawing on Aristotle, Albertus argued for the autonomy of natural philosophy (later synonymous with science), which could be pursued through human reason without the need for divine grace. As McGrath observes, Albertus maintained that “natural philosophy was concerned with natural truths, and theology with supernatural ones.” This delineation allowed natural philosophy to flourish as an independent discipline while safeguarding theology’s authority in matters of divine revelation.

Albertus’s intellectual vision, supported by Gregory IX’s 1231 bull Parens scientiarum, reshaped university culture, encouraging the study of Aristotle’s Libri naturales. His successor, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), built on this framework in works like Summa contra Gentiles, using natural philosophy as a common language to engage with non-Christian audiences. For Aquinas, philosophy and theology were distinct yet convergent fields, each operating within its own methods while arriving at truths that complemented one another. He wrote of God as the “supernatural cause of all things” and described creation’s participation in the divine as the sacramentum mundi. Yet, even for Aquinas, the natural and supernatural were not sharply opposed; rather, the former participated in the latter.

By the 17th century, the rise of scientific rationalism and the Reformation’s emphasis on faith over reason reconfigured these categories. Nature became a closed system governed by observable laws, and the supernatural came to signify phenomena that disrupted or transcended these laws. As de Lubac observed, “the supernatural could only gain currency as that which was natural came to be understood as the order of things in the postlapsarian, rather than the prelapsarian, world.”

Secularization, Disenchantment, and Science

The Enlightenment and the scientific revolution brought new challenges to Christianity’s understanding of the natural and supernatural. Max Weber’s concept of “disenchantment” aptly captures the secularizing trajectory of modernity, where the mystical and divine dimensions of the world were increasingly supplanted by rational explanations and empirical observations. This process, however, was neither straightforward nor universally embraced, as it generated complex interactions between faith, science, and society.

The Reformation’s Attack on Catholic Supernaturalism

The Reformation’s attack on Catholic liturgical practices and doctrines accused the Church of promoting “superstition” through its supernaturalism. Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin sought to purify Christian worship and doctrine by eliminating what they perceived as medieval Catholicism’s excessive reliance on supernatural phenomena, which they condemned as superstitions. This critique targeted key aspects of Catholic devotional life. For instance, Catholicism had long emphasized the intercession of saints and the miraculous power of relics. Pilgrimages to shrines housing relics, such as those of St. Peter or St. James, were central to medieval piety. Luther and other reformers rejected these practices, arguing that they detracted from Christ’s singular role as mediator between God and humanity.

Catholic theology had historically upheld a sacramental view of the world, where physical objects and actions (e.g., the Eucharist, holy water) were imbued with divine grace. Reformers rejected the notion of transubstantiation—the belief that the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the literal body and blood of Christ—as irrational and unsupported by Scripture. Calvin, for instance, advocated a symbolic understanding of the Eucharist, emphasizing the spiritual rather than physical presence of Christ.

Reports of Marian apparitions, miraculous healings, and visions were common in Catholic devotion. Protestants dismissed these as fabrications or demonic deceptions, arguing that miracles had ceased with the apostolic age. This cessationist theology effectively reduced the scope of the supernatural in everyday life.

Furthermore, Catholic exorcisms, deeply rooted in the belief in demonic possession, were viewed with suspicion by reformers. While both Protestants and Catholics engaged in witch hunts, Protestants increasingly associated such practices with Catholic superstition, distancing themselves from the supernatural rituals of their opponents.

The Reformation and the Rational Turn of the Enlightenment

The Reformation’s critique of Catholic supernaturalism helped pave the way for the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason and empiricism in several ways. First, by challenging centuries-old Catholic practices and doctrines, reformers cultivated a spirit of skepticism that extended beyond theology. The Reformation’s principle of sola scriptura (Scripture alone) encouraged individuals to question religious authorities and traditions, emphasizing personal interpretation and rational engagement with the Bible. This critical attitude toward authority will resonate with Enlightenment thinkers, who extended it to secular institutions, scientific inquiry, and natural philosophy.

The Protestant rejection of sacraments, relics, and miraculous phenomena also contributed to a “demystification” of the world. The sacred was no longer seen as present in material objects or physical acts but confined to the spiritual realm. This desacralization aligned with the Enlightenment’s materialist and mechanistic views of nature, where divine intervention was considered unnecessary for explaining physical phenomena.

Reformers like Calvin emphasized the role of human reason, tempered by divine grace, in interpreting Scripture and understanding God’s will. While they subordinated reason to faith, this emphasis nonetheless affirmed the value of rational inquiry—a position Enlightenment thinkers adopted but stripped of its theological constraints. Figures like Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) would later argue that religion must conform to the dictates of reason, encapsulating this trajectory in his Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone.

Weber famously linked Protestantism to the rise of capitalism through the so-called “Protestant work ethic,” but this ethos also extended to scientific inquiry. The Protestant emphasis on discipline, individual effort, and the mastery of nature encouraged engagement with empirical investigation, further supporting the Enlightenment’s rationalist agenda.

Finally, the Reformation’s focus on God’s transcendence reinforced a naturalistic worldview, where God acted through immutable laws rather than ad hoc interventions. This idea became extremely popular with the emerging scientific revolution, as thinkers like Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle framed their studies of natural laws as a way to understand God’s orderly creation.

The Enlightenment’s Rational Turn

The Reformation’s theological critiques provided a foundation for the Enlightenment’s broader assault on the supernatural. In his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), David Hume applied skeptical reasoning to miracles, arguing that they were improbable violations of natural laws, often perpetuated by ignorance or deception. Hume’s critique reflected a growing trend of viewing supernatural claims through the lens of empirical evidence.

A fierce critic of the Catholic Church, Voltaire also decried its reliance on miraculous narratives as a means of control. His deist philosophy presented a rationalized, naturalistic conception of God, rejecting supernatural phenomena as relics of a benighted past. Similarly, as editor of the Encyclopédie, Denis Diderot championed secular knowledge and reason, framing religion—and particularly Catholicism—as an obstacle to progress. Catholicism, with its commitment to sacraments and the miraculous, was targeted as incompatible with the modern world.

The Enlightenment advanced a worldview that privileged reason, observation, and human autonomy over divine revelation and traditional authority. Figures like René Descartes emphasized the power of human reason to comprehend reality independently of theological frameworks. Descartes’s dualism—distinguishing between the mind (spiritual) and body (physical)—helped set the stage for understanding nature as a mechanistic system governed by laws, rather than a creation imbued with divine purpose.

This rationalist ethos was evident in the works of deists like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson, who rejected miracles and divine intervention as inconsistent with the natural order. Deism recast God as a distant creator who established natural laws but did not interfere with them, thereby marginalizing the supernatural in favor of a purely naturalistic explanation of the world.

The Reformation’s attack on Catholic supernaturalism dismantled many of the traditional beliefs and practices that had long defined the sacred in Western Christianity. By desacralizing the natural world and emphasizing Scripture and reason, Protestantism laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment’s rational turn. While this trajectory alienated many from traditional Christian faith, it also created space for new forms of engagement with the natural and supernatural, as seen in the revivalist movements and Romantic re-enchantment of the 19th century.

The Rise of Empirical Science

The scientific revolution further accelerated this disenchantment. Pioneers like Isaac Newton revealed a universe governed by mathematical laws, diminishing the need for supernatural explanations. Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687) demonstrated that celestial and terrestrial phenomena could be explained through universal gravitation, challenging earlier cosmologies that attributed such phenomena to divine or angelic intervention.

By the 19th century, this mechanistic view of nature was firmly entrenched. Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (1830–1833) introduced the idea of deep time, challenging biblical chronologies by proposing that geological processes operated over millions of years. Similarly, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) revolutionized biology by explaining the diversity of life through natural selection, undermining literal readings of the Genesis creation narrative. Responses varied. Fundamentalists defended literal interpretations of Scripture, rejecting Darwin’s evolutionary theory as incompatible with faith. Theistic evolutionists, such as John Henry Newman, reconciled evolution with divine providence, arguing that natural processes could be seen as instruments of God’s creative will. Liberal theologians reinterpreted Genesis as allegory, emphasizing its theological rather than scientific significance.

In any event, the rise of empirical science marked a transformative shift in how the natural world was understood and studied, reshaping Christian theology’s interaction with nature and the supernatural. This shift was not confined to England but was a pan-European phenomenon with global implications. Figures from Italy, Germany, France, and beyond contributed to a growing confidence in reason and observation as tools for unlocking the mysteries of nature. The legacy of this movement had profound consequences for Christianity’s relationship with science, often leading to tensions between the explanatory power of empirical methods and theological claims about divine action.

Popular Responses and Countercurrents

While secularization and disenchantment dominated elite intellectual circles, popular culture retained a fascination with the supernatural. The 19th century saw the rise of spiritualism, with mediums and séances capturing the public imagination. Figures like Emanuel Swedenborg blended Christian mysticism with metaphysical speculation, while the gothic imagination produced ghost stories, haunted tales, and works like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), which explored the ethical implications of science encroaching on divine prerogatives.

While these debates raged, Romanticism offered a counterpoint to disenchantment. Poets like William Wordsworth and thinkers like John Ruskin celebrated nature as a manifestation of the divine, seeking to re-enchant the natural world by emphasizing its beauty and spiritual significance.

The resurgence of supernaturalism extended beyond Christianity. As Henri de Lubac notes, the supernatural “as that which transcends the natural” became a focal point for Romanticism and the gothic imagination. Ghost stories, mystical experiences, and tales of hauntings captivated popular culture, blending older Christian themes with new secular and literary expressions.

Revivalism and the Persistence of the Supernatural

Despite the growing influence of secularization and rationalism in the 18th and 19th centuries, belief in the supernatural not only persisted but was reimagined in new and often contentious ways. Revivalist movements, particularly within Protestantism, emphasized direct experiences of divine power, spiritual gifts, and miracles. However, as Henri de Lubac warns in Surnaturel, this new kind of supernaturalism, emerging in the wake of modernity’s dualistic separation of nature and grace, risked distorting the integrated Christian understanding of creation and redemption.

Revivalist movements arose as a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the perceived deadening of traditional liturgies. These movements emphasized a personal and immediate experience of God’s power, often marked by miraculous signs. In the United States and Britain, revivalist preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached emotional, heart-centered faith. The Second Great Awakening (1790–1840) brought a heightened emphasis on supernatural phenomena, such as physical healings and ecstatic spiritual experiences. Revival meetings became sites of intense emotional and physical displays, often interpreted as evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence.

Outdoor gatherings, particularly in the American frontier, became a hallmark of the Second Great Awakening. At these meetings, attendees reported supernatural occurrences, including visions, trances, and mass conversions. Critics, however, questioned whether these displays reflected genuine divine action or psychological manipulation.

The turn of the 20th century witnessed the birth of Pentecostalism, which placed an even greater emphasis on supernatural gifts. Led by African American preacher William J. Seymour, the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles marked the emergence of Pentecostalism as a global movement. Participants spoke in tongues (glossolalia), prophesied, and performed healings, believing these gifts were a restoration of the apostolic age’s supernatural power. Building on Pentecostal themes, the Charismatic Renewal spread across denominational boundaries, bringing supernatural practices like speaking in tongues and healing ministries into Catholic, Anglican, and mainline Protestant contexts.

These movements often framed the supernatural as a disruption of the natural order, a rupture that manifested divine power in extraordinary ways. While these practices reinvigorated many believers, de Lubac’s critique is relevant here: this conception of the supernatural, as entirely external to the natural order, risks reducing the supernatural to isolated phenomena rather than integrating it into the broader sacramental understanding of creation.

The Rise of Spiritualism and Popular Supernaturalism

Parallel to revivalist movements, the 19th century also saw a rise in spiritualism and occult practices, which secularized the supernatural in ways that often conflicted with Christian theology. Figures like the Fox Sisters in the United States popularized spiritualism, claiming to communicate with the dead through séances and other supernatural means. Spiritualism offered a form of supernaturalism detached from traditional Christian doctrines, framing the spirit world as accessible through human effort rather than divine grace.

Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society blended elements of Eastern mysticism, esotericism, and Western occultism. Her writings, including The Secret Doctrine (1888), reinterpreted the supernatural as a system of cosmic laws accessible through esoteric knowledge rather than faith.

Henri de Lubac’s critique of “supernaturalism” as a rupture rather than a fulfillment of the natural sheds light on the theological challenges posed by these developments. For de Lubac, the supernatural is not a separate domain that intrudes upon the natural; rather, it is the grace-filled elevation of the natural to its ultimate destiny in God. The new supernaturalism of revivalism, spiritualism, and popular culture risks several distortions. First, by emphasizing miraculous interventions as interruptions of the natural order, these movements may inadvertently reinforce the secular dichotomy between nature and the supernatural. Second, the focus on extraordinary phenomena—whether miraculous healings or séances—can reduce the supernatural to spectacle, obscuring its deeper theological significance as the transformative work of grace. Finally, the rise of spiritualism and occultism reflects a secular reimagining of the supernatural, detached from its Christian roots and reframed as a naturalistic or esoteric phenomenon.

The persistence of the supernatural in revivalist Christianity and popular culture demonstrates humanity’s enduring longing for transcendence. However, as de Lubac warns, this longing must be directed toward a coherent vision of nature and grace. The challenge for Christianity in the modern era is to articulate a supernaturalism that does not merely rupture the natural order but fulfills it, restoring creation to its divine purpose.

Conclusion: Christianity in an Age of Tension

Between 1789 and 1920, Christianity navigated profound tensions between the natural and supernatural. By engaging with emergent science, addressing secular critiques, and embracing revivalist movements, the faith adapted to the forces of modernity while preserving its spiritual core. The supernatural, far from fading away, evolved alongside these changes, offering believers a framework for interpreting both the mysteries of existence and the challenges of a disenchanted world.