The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf - Review - Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons
In an interesting analysis, The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf reviews Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons in the context of discussing the historical and literary evolution of angels as both agents of God and literary devices:
Recently there has been a considerable fascination with angels in popular culture. Sometimes reverent, sometimes whimsical, these winged beings adorn a surprisingly wide variety of art. But what is an angel?
The English word "angel" comes from the Greek angelus, meaning messenger, which in turn was a loan-translation of the Hebrew mal'akh, when used specifically in the sense of a divine emissary, a heavenly being superior to humans but subordinate to God.
In the earliest parts of the Biblical narrative (particularly Genesis), the distinction between God and his angels is often blurry. Several of the Patriarchs interact with supernatural entities that could be understood as angelic or as God himself coming to earth in the appearance of a man. However, as the Prophets propounded a more transcendental view of God, we see a frequent re-interpretation of these ambiguous passages such that God himself no longer walks the earth and interacts face-to-face with his creations, but instead sends angelic messengers to humanity. A further development of the Jewish conception of angels took place during the Captivity, as the Jewish people were exposed to Zoroastrian dualism and its elaborate hierarchies of supernatural beings who participated in the eternal war between Good and Evil...
Read the rest here...
Recently there has been a considerable fascination with angels in popular culture. Sometimes reverent, sometimes whimsical, these winged beings adorn a surprisingly wide variety of art. But what is an angel?
The English word "angel" comes from the Greek angelus, meaning messenger, which in turn was a loan-translation of the Hebrew mal'akh, when used specifically in the sense of a divine emissary, a heavenly being superior to humans but subordinate to God.
In the earliest parts of the Biblical narrative (particularly Genesis), the distinction between God and his angels is often blurry. Several of the Patriarchs interact with supernatural entities that could be understood as angelic or as God himself coming to earth in the appearance of a man. However, as the Prophets propounded a more transcendental view of God, we see a frequent re-interpretation of these ambiguous passages such that God himself no longer walks the earth and interacts face-to-face with his creations, but instead sends angelic messengers to humanity. A further development of the Jewish conception of angels took place during the Captivity, as the Jewish people were exposed to Zoroastrian dualism and its elaborate hierarchies of supernatural beings who participated in the eternal war between Good and Evil...
Read the rest here...