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The preternatural (or praeternatural) is that which appears outside, beside or beyond (Latin: præter) the nature. It is "suspended between the mundane and the miraculous".Allchin, Douglas, "Monsters & Marvels: How Do We Interpret the "Preternatural"?", The American Biology Teacher, November 2007. p.565.
In theology, the term is often used to distinguish marvels or deceptive trickery, often attributed to witchcraft or , from purely divine power of genuinely supernatural origin that the . Preternatural is also used to describe gifts such as immortality, possessed by Adam and Eve before the fall of man into original sin, and the power of flight that angels are thought to have. In the early modern period, the term was used by scientists to refer to abnormalities and strange phenomena of various kinds that seemed to depart from the norms of nature.
By the 16th century, the term "preternatural" was increasingly used to refer to demonic activity comparable to the use of magic by human adepts: The Devil, "being a natural Magician ... may perform many acts in ways above our knowledge, though not transcending our natural power." According to the philosophy of the time, preternatural phenomena were not contrary to divine law, but used hidden, or occult powers that violated the normal pattern of natural phenomena.
Orestes Brownson, in his nineteenth-century autobiographical novel The Spirit-Rapper, has the Christian apologist Mr. Merton say "Man has a double nature, is composed of body and soul ... A supernatural power assists him to rise; a preternatural power assists him, so to speak, to descend".
In the 19th century the term was appropriated in anthropology to refer to folk beliefs about fairies, trolls and other such creatures which were not thought of as demonic, but which were perceived to affect the natural world in unpredictable ways. According to Thorstein Veblen, such preternatural agents were often thought of as forces somewhere between supernatural beings and material processes. "The preternatural agency is not necessarily conceived to be a personal agent in the full sense, but it is an agency which partakes of the attributes of personality to the extent of somewhat arbitrarily influencing the outcome of any enterprise, and especially of any contest."Veblen, T., The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions, Macmillan, New York, 1915, p.280
The linguistic association between individual agents and unexplained or unfortunate circumstances remains. Many people attribute occurrences that are known to be material processes, such as "gremlins in the engine", a "bug in the machine", or pathetic fallacy: "the clouds are threatening". The anthropomorphism in our daily life is a combination of the above cultural stems, as well as the manifestation of our pattern-projecting minds.
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