Angels in Early Medieval England

Humanist prejudice famously made medieval angelology the paradigm of ludicrous speculation with its caricature of “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” The truth is quite the opposite: many of medieval philosophy’s most original and ingenious contributions actually came to light in discussions of angelology. In fact, angelology provided an ideal context for discussing issues such as the structure of the universe, the metaphysical texture of creatures (e.g. esse-essentia composition and the principle of individuation), and theories of time, knowledge, freedom, and linguistics—issues which, for the most part, are still highly relevant for contemporary philosophy. Because this specifically philosophical interest in angels developed mainly during the course of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, this volume centers on the period from Bonaventure to Ockham. It also, however, discusses some original positions by earlier thinkers such as Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury. Its nine thorough studies bring to light some neglected but highly fascinating aspects of medieval philosophy, thus filling an important gap in the literature. Contributors include: Richard Cross, Gregory T. Doolan, H.J.M.J. Goris, Tobias Hoffmann, Peter King, Timothy B. Noone, Giorgio Pini, Bernd Roling, and John F. Wippel.

This volume addresses a twofold question. The first is of a more historical nature, the second of philosophical concern: what was the place occupied by angels in the medieval world-view and what was their function in medieval intellectual speculation? 1 What can medieval angelological reflection contribute to contemporary philosophical discussions? recent studies that have appeared in english on medieval angelology have mostly concentrated on the historical development of the perception of angels in medieval church and society, or have approached the subject exclusively from the perspective of religious spirituality and theology. 2 Although there are a couple of notable exceptions, 3 studies devoted to medieval angelology from a philosophical perspective in all its argumentative variety, which would pay 1 From a more artistic perspective, a very instructive study on medieval perceptions of angels is henry Mayr-harting, offers a comparison between ockham and Aquinas with regard to their models of angelic language. in tune with our purposes here, Panaccio highlights connections to contemporary issues in the philosophy of mind. in French the obvious reference is Tiziana suárez-nani's twofold study, Les anges et la philosophie: subjectivité et fonction cosmologique des substances séparées à la fin du XIIIe siécle (Paris: J. Vrin, 2002) and Connaissance et langage des anges selon Thomas d'Aquin et Gilles de Rome (Paris: J. Vrin, 2002).

European History Quarterly, 2009

Angels in Medieval Philosophical Inquiry. Their Function and Significance, 2008

I shall attempt to draw a comparison between medieval, Renaissance and Reformation theories of angels. Any comparison needs a tertium comparationis which in this particular case – due to the heterogeneity of the three discourses – is not easy to determine. Thus, when I choose to concentrate on the issue of angelic cognition of material particulars, this is not to suggest that the philosophers and theologians of the three periods concerned have all actually discussed it as such. It is rather the why and how they did or did not discuss this issue that will provide the basis for comparing the different views about the angels.

Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 2015

Reformation and Renaissance Review, 2008

Reformation and Renaissance Review, Vol 8, No 2 (2006). ...

This article investigates how mid-thirteenth-century theologians grappled with questions of angelic embodiment and corporeal life-functioning. Regent masters such as Alexander of Hales, Richard Fishacre, Richard Rufus of Cornwall, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure variously employed scriptural and patristic sources in conjunction with Aristotelian philosophy to develop a basic metaphysics of angels according to which these inherently incorporeal spiritual creatures assume bodies not on account of any necessity on their part, but rather simply so that we humans might understand their divinely-ordained ministries. Because the relationship between angels and their bodies is strictly occasional and extrinsic, aiming at human instruction, embodied life-functions that are natural to humans are not natural to angels. Rather, angels merely act in anthropomorphic ways in order to fittingly reveal the divine will to human comprehension.

Reformation and Renaissance Review, 2008

This is an introductory survey of Protestant theological writings on the doctrine of angels expressed in systems of theology (primarily loci communes), treatises, and sermons produced during the post-Reformation era of scholastic orthodoxy. The topic has received little scholarly attention, but is of importance for the light it sheds on a significant theological era that is not well known for its prolific literary activity on angelology. It provides a frame of reference on bibliographical sources for this subject to scholars of historical theology, historians of Reformation, Renaissance and Enlightenment thought, and those with interdisciplinary interests.

Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2020

The angels though unseen must be seen to be believed. For as invisible spirits, the angels cannot be seen, read, or written with the aid of any visible media. And yet as heavenly messengers, the angels may also be believed to communicate messages in many different media. Stephen Miller's The Book of the Angels: Seen and Unseen is a multimedia study of the literary sources of the angels in dialogue with the visual arts. It can be read as a triptych, which, in a dialogic opening from the textual to the visual, unfolds into three spheres for the study of the nature, orders, and place of the angels as unseen in spirit yet seen in the arts. In ostensible imitation of the angelic hierarchy, it is divided into nine parts, consisting in an introduction, eight numbered chapters: (1) On the Nature of the Angels; (2) On the Hierarchies and Orders of Angels; (3) Seven Heavens; (4) The Archangels; (5) Other Angels; (6) Fallen Angels; (7) Contemporary References to Angels in Popular Literature, Film, and Television; and (8) More Things in Heaven and Earth. The first three chapters on the (1) nature, (2) orders, and (3) place of the angels form the three panels on which he presents the middle chapters on the (4) archangels, (5) angels, and (6) demons that index divisions within the second sphere of the (2) orders of the angels, and the introductory and (8) concluding chapters as successive elaborations upon the third sphere of the place of the angels in dialogue with the visual arts. The text is framed by this dialogue with the visual arts. It is neither naïvely empirical nor sufficiently critical for a philosophic demonstration. Miller writes, instead, with an open invitation to a gallery of curiosities for those who, with Rowan Williams, may be curious to learn of that for which 'we have no real idea' (p. 109). He disavows any pretense of a scientific angelology as he acknowledges that 'little is categorically known' of the angels, except as it can be 'pieced together from tradition, lore, and legend, scattered documentation, witness, testimony and theological, philosophical and artistic meditation insight and imagination' (p. 1). He acknowledges, with St Paul, that there are angels not yet known to us, the inadequacy of past reflections on the angels (p. 6), and the insufficiency of angelology as a 'simplistic reflection of the manifold reality' of the angels (p. 112). And he definitively renounces any attempt to 'rationalize' the mystery of the angels (p. 115). Yet he nevertheless insists that this study of the angels need not be an entirely 'fruitless' task (p. 112). For he also curates from among the visual arts a collection with which to 'map out traditions and associated lore and legends surrounding angels' in an illustrative cartography of the angelic orders and manifestations (p. 116). Miller draws from the 'tradition, lore, and legend' (p. 1) of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (pp. 80, 91, 97, 111), a 'general