The Types of Miracles and the Possibilty of Demonic Miracles – Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P.

Feb 11, 2026

Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P., Dominican philosopher and Thomist scholar, gives a clear tour of how miracles are graded and why only God can do the highest acts. He explains middle and low-level signs, how angels and demons can mimic wonders, and how to discern spiritual origins. The talk also addresses Hume’s critique, Lourdes investigations, and limits on finite spirits.

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INSIGHT

Miracles Imply A Personal Spiritual Cause

Miracles point beyond natural explanation to a spiritual, personal cause rather than mere physical causes.
Fr. Anselm Ramelow emphasizes discerning the agent and intentions behind extraordinary effects.

ADVICE

Separate Infinite From Finite Spiritual Causes

Distinguish infinite (God) from finite spiritual causes when evaluating miracles and their significance.
Check whether the agent is embodied (humans) or disembodied (angels/demons) to narrow possible explanations.

INSIGHT

Miracles Are Graded By How They Surpass Nature

Not all miracles are equal; some effects only an infinite God can perform while lesser signs fit finite agents.
Aquinas' grading shows why certain astonishing events uniquely point to God's omnipotence.

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Fr. Anselm Ramelow explains how, in a Thomistic framework, miracles are graded by how they surpass nature and why only God can perform the highest-level miracles of creation and resurrection, while finite spirits—including demons—can produce lesser “signs” that must be carefully discerned.

This lecture was given on April 5th, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P., a native of Germany, teaches philosophy at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, where he is also currently the chair of the philosophy department. He is also a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and the Academy of Catholic Theology. He obtained his doctorate under Robert Spaemann in Munich on Leibniz and the Spanish Jesuits (Gott, Freiheit, Weltenwahl, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997) and did theological work on George Lindbeck and the question of a Thomist philosophy and theology of language (Beyond Modernism? - George Lindbeck and the Linguistic Turn in Theology, Neuried: Ars Una 2005). Other works include Thomas Aquinas: De veritate Q. 21-24; Translation and Commentary (Hamburg: Meiner, 2013) and God: Reason and Reality (Basic Philosophical Concepts) (Munich: Philosophia Verlag, 2014), as editor and contributor. Articles appeared in Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte, Nova et Vetera, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly and Angelicum. Areas of research and teaching include Free Will, the History of Philosophy and Philosophical Aesthetics. He has worked on a philosophical approach to Miracles and other topics of the philosophy of religion, and more recently the philosophy of technology.

Keywords: Aquinas On Miracles, Demonic Signs And Wonders, Discernment Of Spirits, Finite Spiritual Causes, Levels Of Miracles, Natural Law And Suspension, Omnipotence And Creation, Possibility Of Demonic Miracles, Thomistic Philosophy Of Miracles