RADU TODERESCU

MYSTAGOGIA ANGELORUM
Studii despre anghelism
We are not to think that man is the highest form of created being. As the distance between man and the lower forms of life is filled with beings of various grades, so it is possible that between man and God there exist creatures of higher than human intelligence and power. Indeed, the existence of lesser deities in all heathen mythologies presumes the existence of a higher order of beings between God and man, superior to man and inferior to God. This possibility is turned into certainty by the express and explicit teaching of the Scriptures. It would be sad indeed if we should allow ourselves to be such victims of sense perception and so materialistic that we should refuse to believe in an order of spiritual beings simply because they were beyond our sight and touch.1 The literal meaning of the word angel thus points more toward the function or status of such beings in a cosmic hierarchy rather than toward connotations of essence or nature, which have been prominent in popular piety, especially in Western religions. Thus, angels have their significance primarily in what they do rather than in what they are. Whatever essence or inherent nature they possess is in terms of their relationship to their source (God, or the ultimate being). Because of the Western iconography (the system of image symbols) of angels, however, they have been granted essential identities that often surpass their functional relationships to the sacred or holy and their performative relationships to the profane world. In other words, popular piety, feeding on graphic and symbolic representations of angels, has to some extent posited semidivine or even divine status to angelic figures. Though such occurrences are not usually sanctioned doctrinally or theologically, some angelic figures, such as Mithra (a Persian god who in Zoroastrianism became an angelic mediator between heaven and earth and judge and preserver of the created world), have heaven and earth and judge and preserver of the created world), have achieved semidivine or divine status with their own cults. In Zoroastrianism there was a belief in the amesha spentas, or the holy or bounteous immortals, who were functional aspects or entities of Ahura Mazd, the Wise Lord. One of the amesha spentas, Vohu Manah (Good Mind), revealed to the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (6th century bc) the true God, his nature, and a kind of ethical covenant, which man may accept and obey or reject and disobey. In a similar manner, about 1,200 years later, the angel Gabriel (Man of God) revealed to the Arabian prophet Muammad (5th6th century ad) the Qurn (the Islmic scriptures) and the true God (Allh), his oneness, and the ethical and cultic requirements of Islm. The epithets used to describe Gabriel, the messenger of Godthe spirit of holiness and the faithful spiritare similar to those applied to the amesha spentas of Zoroastrianism and the third Person of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in Christianity. In these monotheistic religions (though Zoroastrianism later became dualistic) as also in Judaism, the functional characteristics of angels are more clearly enunciated than their ontological (or nature of Being) characteristicsexcept in the many instances in which popular piety and legend have glossed over the functional aspects.2 ROSTUL MISTAGOGIEI N ANGHEOLOGIE

1 2

http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=712#P86_3405. C. Jouco Bleeker and Geo Widengren (eds.), Historia Religionum: Handbook for the History of Religions, vol. 1, Religions of the Past (1969), and vol. 2, Religions of the Present (1971), contains helpful sections on the role of angels and demons in chapters on the various religions, as well as a very usable bibliography. J.B. Noss, Mans Religions, 4th ed. (1969), contains useful sections on angels and demons. Gustav Davidson, A Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels (1967); and Rossell H. Robbins, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology (1959), are Western-oriented. R.C. Zaehner, The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism (1961), has excellent sections on the role of angels and demons in Zoroastrianism and their relationship to Hindu spiritual beings. Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (1966), contains useful sections relating angelic and demonic figures of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism to Gnostic speculation. See also Jeffrey B. Russell, Satan: the Early Christian Tradition (1981).

Augustine does not exclude the contrary opinion that the angels were created, not in the beginning of time, but before the beginning of time, for in that case, he says, the words in the beginning mean literally, not in the beginning of all creation, since the angels would previously have been created, but rather in the Beginning, that is, in the divine Wisdom, the divine Word of God, Who is the Beginning, as He tells us in Jn 8:25, in answer to the question Who are you? - (I am) the Beginning. Augustine is open to this opinion, chiefly because, he says, "it gives me the liveliest satisfaction to find the Trinity celebrated in the very beginning of the Book of Genesis." Regarding the meaning of heaven and earth in the very first verse of Genesis, Augustine says rather indecisively in The City of God: "Under these names heaven and earth the whole creation is signified, either as divided into spiritual and material, which seems the more likely, or into the two great parts of the world in which all created things are contained, so that, first of all, the creation is presented in sum and then its parts are enumerated according to the mystic number of the days." In The Letter of Genesis he had explained that here as in Gen 2:4 the words heaven and earth mean the whole of creation, understanding heaven in this verse to mean, not the physical heaven of outer space, but the incorporeal heaven of the angelic spirits, who are situated above the bodily heavens, not by a higher location in space but by sublimity of nature. Thus the word heaven in this verse he took to mean the angels, fully formed in their nature, while the earth signifies "the invisible, unstructured, and abysmally dark incompleteness of the bodily mass from which things existing in time were to come." Augustine admits that the creation of the angels is not plainly stated in this description of the creation of the world, but he thinks that it is implicitly stated either under the name of heaven in verse one or under the name of light in verse three, because he "cannot believe" that their creation was omitted entirely. He refers to other places in the Scriptures where the creation of the angels is explicitly stated (Dan 3:58; Ps 148:2-4; Job 38:7). Thus, in The City of God, Augustine avers that, "if the angels are included in the works of God during these six days, they are that light which was called day." And in The Letter of Genesis he expounds at length his theory that, prior to the first day, the angels were created in their natural being under the name of heaven in Gen 1:1, and the light of the six days represents degrees of their supernatural illumination in the grace of the Beatific Vision.3 O ENUMERARE A MAI MULTOR FIINE ANGELICE DIN DIFERITE TRADIII RELIGIOASE ALE OMENIRII But what is the purpose of the beings who people the spiritual world? Obviously God intended and intends that they should be the most perfect reflections of His majesty and glory and share in His bliss. If we are told of the visible heavens, "The heavens declare the glory of God", how much more is this the purpose of the spiritual heavens. For this reason St. Gregory the Theologian calls them "reflections of the Perfect Light" or secondary lights. The angels of those ranks which are closest to the human race appear in Holy Scripture as messengers or heralds of the will of God, guides for people and the servants of their salvation. The Apostle Paul writes: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Heb. 1:14). Angels not only hymn the glory of God, but also serve Him in the plan of His Providence for the material world. The Fathers of the Church often speak of this service of theirs. "Some of them stand before the Great God, while others by their action support the whole world" (St. Gregory the Theologian, "Songs of the Mysteries"). Angels are "set in command of the elements, the heavens, the world, and all within it" (St. Athenagoras). "Each of them has received under his control some particular part of the universe, or is attached to some particular thing or person in the world, as is known to Him Who arranges and orders all things, and all work towards one goal, by command of the Builder of all things" (St. Gregory the Theologian). Some ecclesiastical writers express the idea that particular angels are set in charge of particular aspects of the kingdom of nature, inorganic, organic and animal or animate, as we read, for example, in the works of Origen and Blessed Augustine. This idea comes from the Revelation, where we read of angels set in charge of certain physical elements by the will of God (Rev. 16:15: "And I heard the angel of the waters say . . ."; Rev. 7:1 : "I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, not on the sea,
3

http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt47.html.

nor on any tree;" Rev. 14:18: "And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire . . ."). According to the vision of the Prophet Daniel, there are angels to whom God entrusts the fate of the kingdoms and peoples of the earth (Dan. chapters 10-12). The Lord Jesus Christ said: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the Face of My Father Which is in heaven" (Matt. 18:10).4 CONCLUZII The angelology of the New Testament attaches closely to the notions already developed. The ministry of angels is, as in the Old Testament, specially connected with the work of salvation (Heb. 1. 14), and with the person of Christ (John i. 51), to whom after the temptation (and at Gethsemane?) angels minister, and who can at will command their aid (Mat. xxvi. 53). As in the later Old Testament books, revelations by angels are given in vision or dream, but even waking eyes see the angel or angels who minister at the resurrection. So an angel delivers Peter (Acts xii), &c. As in the Old Testament, the figure of angels is human, their raiment white, and their aspect luminous. A multitude of angels appear singing praises at the nativity (Luke ii. 13), and in general they sympathise with the repentance of sinners and the progress of the divine kingdom (Luke xv. 10; 1 Pet. i. 12). Gabriel reappears in Luke i. The belief in special guardian angels of individuals appears as current (Acts xii. 15), but the words of Jesus (Mat. xviii. 10) hardly go farther than the statements of the Psalms. The angelic hosts of the prophetic eschatology are naturally transferred to the second coming (Parusia) of our Lord. The saints after the resurrection are like the angels (Mat. xxii. 30; Luke xx. 36). In the Apocalypse angels play a great part. Notable features, in addition to the seven highest angels (viii 2), are the angels of the seven churches (who, however, are by many taken as human figures, church officers), and the association of special angels with cosmical forces, e.g., angels of fire and water (xvi. 5, xiv. 18). The same idea appears even more sharply expressed in the writings of Paul, if, as Ritschl has rendered plausible, the elements (elemental powers) of the world (Col. ii; Gal. iv. 3) are the angels, and specially the angels of the law. This view is connected with the characteristic position of Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the inferiority of the old covenant is stamped by the fact that the law was given and enforced by angels (Gal. iii., iv.; Heb. ii; cf. Acts vii. 53), an idea partly based on Exod. xxiii. 20. f., and partly on a transference to Sinai of the usual poetico-prophetic imagery of a theophany -- a transference suggested by Ps. lxviii 17, Deut. xxxiii. 2, and actually carried out in the LXX. Translation of the latter text, and in the current Jewish "The phenomena to which the power of Angels may give rise, whether exercised mediately or immediately, must be of a remarkable character, both as regards their extent and their diversity. As on the one hand these pure spirits possess a knowledge of physical and chemical laws far surpassing our own knowledge, and as on the other their power is of such vast range, we must assume that there are hardly any phenomena in the world which they cannot produce in one way or another. Indeed, such effects may be so surprising as to have all the appearances of miracles. They are not, however, true miracles, for, though they surpass the powers of the visible universe, so far as it is known to us, they do not in reality surpass the powers of the Angelic nature, a miracle being due to the power of God alone, and surpassing all the powers both of visible and invisible nature.5

The experiences of an angelic presence seem to occur most often in moments of heightened awareness -- when everyday life has already been disrupted by some pressing fear or obstacle. Though often cast as rescuers, angels also seem to intervene to remove not the danger but the fear of it. Among the most memorable stories of World War I is the
4 5

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/death/angels2.aspx. A M. Lepicier, The Unseen World http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/STATSOUL.HTM.

tale of the Angel of Mons. In August 1914 during one of the first battles of the war, British and French troops were retreating from a German assault. As Burnham tells the story, the wounded soldiers were taken to field hospitals where one, then another and another, told the nurses of seeing angels on the field. The French saw the Archangel Michael, riding a white horse. The British said it was St. George, "a tall man with yellow hair in golden armor, on a white horse, holding his sword up, and his mouth open, crying 'Victory!' " The nurses reported a startling serenity in the dying men, as though they had nothing to fear. Some soldiers later speculated that their exhaustion had brought on hallucinations. Others thought it was mass hysteria, the result of a battle that was supposed to be easily won by the allies but had turned into a rout. But later stories emerged from the German side of the same incident. The Kaiser's soldiers said they found themselves "absolutely powerless to proceed . . . and their horses turned around sharply and fled." The Germans said the allied position was held by thousands of troops -- though in fact there were only two regiments there.6 The emphasis on angels as divine intermediaries, theologians worry, just creates a greater distance from an ever more abstract God. And to the extent that angels are always benign spirits, it evades any reckoning with the struggle between good and evil. "I'm certain that if we are to solve the problems on earth, we will have to do it ourselves," says playwright Tony Kushner. The angel in his play in no way is meant to absolve humans of tough choices and hard spiritual work. "New Age theology says we live in a benign universe where all you have to do is ask an angel for help. Most devotees of angels don't pretend to have found a way to confound Providence and repel disaster. They do, however, suggest that the very idea of angels seems to act as a means of grace. The act of looking for angels is an exalting gesture. To the degree that this search represents the triumph of hope over proof, it may be a good and cheering sign of our times. For all those who say they have had some direct experience of angels, no proof is necessary; for those predisposed to doubt angels' existence, no proof is possible. And for those in the mystified middle, there is often a growing desire to be persuaded. If heaven is willing to sing to us, it is little to ask that we be ready to listen.7

6 7

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979893-6,00.html. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979893-8,00.html.