ANGELS

The concept of angel is incredibly intriguing from the philosophical standpoint, yet here it is in the Sonnets section, as a compromise of sorts, as I do not wish to argue about the angels’ theological value, and placing this entry in the Philosophy section could be easily misconstrued that way. Angels have an aesthetic value, and their role in literature and art cannot be overstated, and they particularly pose an ethical conundrum, as to their essential affinity to man, in so far as their division into the good, the bad, and the ugly is concerned. This last point is surprisingly not so obvious to all, as angelic goodness is traditionally taken for granted, in spite of, say, the angelic badness of Lucifer.

The present entry mentions literary angelic personages, such as Milton’s Abdiel, etc., and serves as the first part of a diptych that includes Lermontov’s Demon as the second part. All the more the reason to place it in the Sonnets section…

What is an angel? Let us start with several relevant definitions in my Webster’s Dictionary:

1.      Literally, a messenger. [Rare.]

2.      A spirit, or a spiritual being, employed by God, according to the Scriptures, to communicate His will to man.

3.      A ministering or guiding spirit.

4.      A conventional image of a white-robed figure in human form with wings and a halo.

5.      A minister of the Gospel, or pastor; as the angel of the church at Ephesus.

6.      A person regarded as beautiful, good, innocent, etc.

The tendency to associate angels with goodness and beauty has permeated theological and secular literature and examples of such exclusively positive associations are enormously abundant. In order not to confuse an angelic angel with an angel of hell, the word demon has been used by the Church Fathers, like in Tertullian: “Every angel and demon is winged. Consequently, they are everywhere in one moment. To them, the whole world is one place.”

Or here, in strictly positive sense, in John Calvin’s 1536 Institutes of the Christian Religion, I: “The angels are the dispensers and administrators of the Divine beneficence toward us; they regard our safety, undertake our defense, direct our ways, and exercise constant solicitude that no evil befall us.”

Now, here is Martin Luther’s ‘definitive’ view of what an angel really is (Tischreden, DLXIX): “An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body, for the service of Christendom and of the Church.”

Let us however refer to the authority of the holy Bible, where we find the following “exception” to the apparent “rule” of angelic goodness: “…God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” (II Peter 2:4)

And then, of course, we have Lucifer, perhaps the greatest of God’s angels in Heaven, and look what happened to him, according to the Fourteenth Chapter of Isaiah: “How art though fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art though cut down to the ground…” (Isaiah 14:12, etc.)

Apparently, the angels are not indiscriminately angelic creatures, but, like man, they are endowed by their Creator with the same freedom of choice that happened to be both the bane and the boon of Adam. With this understanding in mind, therefore, we must always approach this intriguing subject, while realizing that what we know about the angels is pitifully inadequate. For instance, how can we trust an angel capable of a Satanic betrayal due to his possession of this terrible quality, which is his freedom of choice, that has been responsible for turning the best of angels into an enemy of God.

Lucifer was obviously not alone in his “rebellion” against God. (By the way, can we by the same token call Adam’s and Eve’s act of disobedience of God in Genesis Chapter III equally a “rebellion?” After all, God Almighty does not face a stronger enemy in Satan than he does in Adam. It was up to Him to punish Satan right away or to empower him to become the Prince of the world which God had created with Satan’s help, and called it “good”!)