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Supernaturalism   /sˌupərnˈætʃərəlˌɪzəm/   Listen
Supernaturalism

noun
1.
A belief in forces beyond ordinary human understanding.
2.
The quality of being attributed to power that seems to violate or go beyond natural forces.  Synonym: supernaturalness.






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"Supernaturalism" Quotes from Famous Books



... also into Christian legend; for it was easy to change the old gods into devils, to keep the demonic creatures as demons, to replace the wise Druids by the priests and saints, and the wizards by the heretics who gave themselves to sorcery. Thus the ancient supernaturalism of the Irish has continued, with modern modifications, to the present day. The body of thought is much the same as it was in the days of Conor and Finn; the ...
— The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland • T. W. Rolleston

... to the "new thing" which the great Apostle proclaimed "in the midst of Mars' Hill;" and yet when their intellectual pride was required to bow itself down, to acknowledge something more than a Neology, and to believe in the supernaturalism of the Resurrection, they only "mocked" the teacher. St. Paul, therefore, departed from the city where his cultivated mind had been stirred at the sight of so many great intellects "wholly given to idolatry[22]." ...
— A Key to the Knowledge of Church History (Ancient) • John Henry Blunt

... lacks both the frankness of a personal deliverance and the plasticity of a work of art. The speakers can neither be identified with the poet nor detached from him; they are neither his mouthpieces nor his creations. The daring supernaturalism seems to indicate that the old spell of Dante, so keenly felt in the Sordello days, had been wrought to new potency by the magic of the life in Dante's Florence, and the subtler magic of the love which he was presently to compare not obscurely ...
— Robert Browning • C. H. Herford

... which quickened other germs of what was afterwards to be known as romanticism, brought with it a notable renascence of the ballad. By general consent the first place in the balladry of the time belongs to Brger's Lenore (1774). The uncanny supernaturalism and onomatop[oe]ic word-jingles, which had lent a mysterious fascination to many an old ballad, but had virtually disappeared from the lyric poetry of the reason-worshiping century, were ...
— An anthology of German literature • Calvin Thomas

... were not soldiers, like Miles Standish; they had no figure so picturesque as Vane, no leader so rashly brave and haughty as Endicott. No Cotton Mather wrote their Magnalia; they had no awful drama of supernaturalism in which Satan and his angels were actors; and the only witch mentioned in their simple annals was a poor old Swedish woman, who, on complaint of her countrywomen, was tried and acquitted of everything ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... Voltaire first made open war upon "revealed religion." All religions that professed a miraculous origin were to him baneful in the extreme, the foes of light and progress, the enemies of mankind. He did not perceive, as modern psychology does, that the period of supernaturalism is the childhood of the mind. Myths and fairy-tales are not of themselves base—the injury lies with the men who seek to profit by these things, and build up a tyranny founded on innocence and ignorance—seeking to perpetuate ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard

... but hollow within. Mr. McCabe is no psychologist. The fables and legends of old times may be abandoned, the desire for the realities round which fable and legend grow remains and cannot be extirpated by a rationalistic operation. Supernaturalism—in the widest sense—is ineradicable. Religion will not be suspended by the discovery that it is possible to formulate excellent theories of social equity without the assistance of priests. The hunger of the human heart for knowledge ...
— Mountain Meditations - and some subjects of the day and the war • L. Lind-af-Hageby

... in the course of his lecture he had more than once touched the giddy regions of supernaturalism, this formula seemed a contradiction to certain minds, yet enthusiastic applause greeted the orator from all ...
— Delsarte System of Oratory • Various

... was altered. Just as the naive popular faith was superseded by an enlightened Stoic supernaturalism, so in education alongside of the simple popular instruction a special training, an exclusive -humanitas-, developed itself and eradicated the last remnants of the old social equality. It will not be superfluous to cast a glance at the aspect ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... and brought forth her child by the revelation of Truth. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recognition that being is Spirit."[51] "Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion with God."[52] Now all this is neither honest supernaturalism nor the honest acceptance of the normal methods of birth. It is certainly not the equivalent of the Gospel account whether the Gospel account be accepted or rejected. To use a phrase which has come into use since "Science and Health" ...
— Modern Religious Cults and Movements • Gaius Glenn Atkins

... between rationalism and supernaturalism was still going on, and the latter was gradually gaining the victory, through the reaction under Schleiermacher just alluded to, an English writer, Mr. Hugh James Rose,(44) published some sermons preached at Cambridge ...
— History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion • Adam Storey Farrar



Words linked to "Supernaturalism" :   supernaturalness, belief, thaumaturgy, exorcism, occultism, unnaturalness, dispossession, supernaturalistic, magic



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