English

Noun

theurge ‎(plural theurges)

1. One who works miracles, or persuades a god or spirit to perform a supernatural work.
   • 1803, Archibald Maclaine (translator), Johann Lorenz Mosheim (author), An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, from the Birth of Christ to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century page 174

     He acknowledged Christ to be a most excellent man, the friend of God, the admirable theurge; he denied, however, that Jesus designed to abolish entirely the worship of demons...

   • 1995, Brian P. Copenhaver and Trismegistus Hermes, Hermetica, Cambdridge University Press page xxv

     The father was known simply as a philosopher, the son as a theurge...

   • 1996, Robert Turcan, The Cults of the Roman Empire, Blackwell Publishing, page 285

     In other words, the theurge makes himself known to and recognized by the gods, like the mysta in his initiation, by means of 'symbols', signs or passwords (synthemata).

   • 2001, Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets, Harvard University Press, page 54

     In this process the human mediator's own role was significantly increased from that of middleman theurge to god-imitating demiurge, not only bringing the images to life inside himself in the form of an “inner sculpting,” but...giving them external form as spirits as well.

Related terms

• theurgy