To explore the ideas of nature and the supernatural, it is useful to start with a stark distinction which lies at the heart of Christian theology, and then see how it might be subverted, at least to some degree. That distinction is the greatest and most significant of all distinctions: between God and creatures. There is God, there is all that God creates, which is not God, and that is it. There is no middle ground, no intermediate hybrid (and that includes Jesus).

Coming at the idea of the supernatural from this perspective, by “nature” we would mean creation, and what lies above and beyond nature (the supernatural) is God. If that is what we mean by natural, then human beings are natural. So are earthworms, and – significantly – so are angels and archangels, and even the most glorious of the seraphim. God created the heavens and the earth, and all things visible and invisible, as the Nicene Creed has it. God is God, and creatures are creatures. Set out that way, only God is supernatural.

In that case, what sets humans apart from the lowly worm – and the angels?