The supernatural refers to what is beyond nature, that is, what is not subject to the laws governing the natural world according to scientific norms or rational understanding. As such, it may refer to religious revelations, miracles, mystical experiences, or even certain so-called paranormal phenomena.

Here, supernatural is synonymous with metaphysical: what is beyond nature is also what is beyond the physical world.
The former, however, carries a more religious connotation, whereas the latter is primarily philosophical.

More precisely

In the Christian tradition (especially medieval and Thomistic), the supernatural designates what radically surpasses the intrinsic powers of created nature: it is the order of grace, of the beatific vision, of deification.
It is not a continuation of nature, but a distinct order founded on a wholly gratuitous gift of God.

By contrast, extraordinary phenomena still belonging to the created order — telepathy, psychic abilities, operative magic — fall under the preternatural: what exceeds ordinary human nature without transcending the created realm itself.

Thus one may distinguish:
— the natural: the created order accessible to reason and experience;
— the preternatural: extraordinary powers or phenomena still belonging to the created realm;
— the supernatural: the uncreated order of God, grace, and vision.

In a broader (non-Thomistic) sense, supernatural simply designates what is not reducible to physical laws and rational categories — that is, the metaphysical order of Meaning, Principle, and the Absolute.
We may then speak of the supernatural as the transcendent dimension of reality, expressed in religious symbolism, rites, and doctrine.

Further reading

  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae — distinction between natural, preternatural, and supernatural; doctrine of grace and the beatific vision.
  • Jean Borella, The Sense of the Supernatural — articulation of the supernatural, metaphysics, and the sacred.
  • Henri de Lubac, Surnaturel — debates on the status of the supernatural in Christian theology.
  • Pseudo-Dionysius, Divine Names; Celestial Hierarchy — the supra-natural order and participation in divine energies.
  • Nicholas of Cusa, De visione Dei — surpassing of knowable reality and supra-natural vision.