thaumaturgy

Thaumaturgy is the purported art or science of performing miracles or miracle-like feats. The word derives from the Greek thauma (wonder or miracle) and ergon (work), forming thaumatourgia, literally “miracle-working.” In English, the term historically denoted the activity of miracle workers such as prophets, saints, or divine agents believed to cause supernatural effects through faith or divine power.

Historically, thaumaturgy is most closely associated with Christian contexts, where saints and holy figures were credited with thaumaturgic acts—healings, exorcisms, and other wonders—that could be validated by religious authorities. In medieval and early modern Europe, thaumaturgy sometimes functioned as a technical descriptor in hagiography and theological writing for the study of miracles and their purported mechanisms.

In religious studies and anthropology, thaumaturgy is used as a category to describe belief in miraculous intervention as a form of social power and authority; it can be contrasted with systems of ritual, magic, or prophecy. In occult and esoteric traditions, thaumaturgy may refer to techniques claimed to produce miraculous outcomes through ritual, invocation, or the manipulation of supposed forces; some writers use it as a synonym for magic or as a specific subset focused on miraculous results.

In modern popular culture, thaumaturgy is frequently used in fantasy and science fiction to describe a discipline of miracle-working powers or the general science of miracles within a fictional magic system. The term is also encountered in scholarly discussions as a historical or theoretical lens for analyzing beliefs about miracle and divine sanction, often distinguished from more general conceptions of magic.