Peter Marshall, Alexandra Walsham, eds. Angels in the Early Modern World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xiv + 326 pp. $99.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-84332-4.

Reviewed by Timothy Maschke (Department of Theology, Concordia University Wisconsin)
Published on H-German (March, 2007)

A Persistence of Angels

The form, function, and nature of angels continue to intrigue scholars and encourage research in spite of the frequent perception of angels as merely a medieval phenomenon. As the editors of this volume note, "Seen and unseen, in heaven and on earth, in image and in text, angels have persistently infiltrated the cultural imagination of western and near-eastern civilization for more than two millennia" (p. 1). Thirteen carefully researched and, for the most part, clearly written chapters demonstrate the breadth of primary material available and depth of scholarly interest in the intriguing topic of angelic activity in the early modern world. Judiciously, yet sparingly, black-and-white illustrations augment and supplement several of the articles.

In their introduction to this volume, co-editors Peter Marshall and Alexandra Walsham provide a helpful overview of the place of angels in Christian history. Admitting that this volume is not an exhaustive study, they refer to it as "a rough-drawn pioneers' map" (p. 3), yet, it is much, much more. Briefly surveying earlier medieval perspectives on angels, with a strong reliance of David Keck's study, they preview the content of the contributions, connecting each essay to its more global or universal context while at the same time adding their own insights and helpful alerts regarding various alternative theories or past research that the scholarship continues to critique.[1]

Medieval understandings of angels from the late renaissance are the subject of Bruce Gordon's chapter. Gordon shows the persistent influence of Nicholas of Cusa, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and, for their special contributions on summoning angels, Johannes Trithemius and Cornelius Agrippa on the eve of the Reformation. From blind reliance on Pseudo-Dionysius to personal control of angels through magic, notions of the omnipresence of angels remained a reality of biblical and cultural certitude for all who lived in late medieval Europe. However diverse the angelic activity and the practices employed, Gordon notes that they returned to an emphasis on faith in Christ and dependence upon God's grace.

Opening with a peculiar account of an angelic apparition to Anna Schuetzin of Duerrmenz, a Lutheran lay woman, Philip Soergel offers a look at angels through the eyes of Martin Luther. Noting that Luther more readily accepted angelic activity than John Calvin, Soergel quickly reviews Luther's chief writings, particularly on the psalms and Genesis, and several sermons prepared for Michaelmas, noting positive references to angels throughout Luther's lifetime. Luther, based on his study of scripture, understood angels as beings created not only to praise God, but to lead, guide, preserve, guard, and help God's people. The Anna Schuetzin account, while providing a stylistic framework for the chapter, is disturbingly distracting from the major focus of this informative chapter on the Reformer's view of angelic activity.

The art of dying (ars moriendi) in England provided Marshall with a unique view of the understanding of angels in the late Tudor and early Stuart era. Recounting the doctrinal changes resulting from the Reformation, he notes the continuing presence of angelic guardians. With the loss of the doctrine of purgatory as a doctrine of comfort, Marshall demonstrates that popular Protestant belief was that angels bore believing Christians directly to heaven upon their death. This emphasis on a distinct angelic task then placed the dying person totally into the hands of divine grace and provided comforting hope without any reliance on human invocations or works.

How angels were understood in Spanish America is described insightfully by Fernando Cervantes, who draws upon his earlier studies in The Devil in the New World (1994). Early Spanish friars held angelic beings in high regard and instructed native neophytes regarding their beneficial activities, particularly in order to give all glory to God and, less often, to Mary. Cervantes argues convincingly that the great variety and ubiquity of various iconic depictions of angels in New World convents and missions demonstrates the religious understanding of their palpable participation in human history. He also notes the curious depiction of angels as birds in drawings meant for indigenous peoples in New Spain, yet concludes that the religious basis of the missionary friars was a strongly Augustinian and Franciscan theology of angelic necessity.

Yielding to post-Reformation pressures, England suffered a complicated shift in the understanding and appreciation of angels, according to Alexandra Walsham. She offers a broad perspective on the desecration and covert reintroduction of angels between the iconoclastic years of Henry VIII and the late seventeenth century. Particularly intriguing are angelic "beams" that remained to grace the roof tresses and ceiling carvings of the grander chapels of England, in seeming defiance of official ordinances against them.

Heralds from hell could be a sub-theme for Robin Briggs's chapter discussing Jean Bodin's dubious or demonic De la demonomanie des sorciers (1580). Briggs brings his expertise on witchcraft to the discussion of angelic beings and the controversies that ensued from Bodin's literary work. Recognizing Bodin's non-Christian ideas, Briggs shows how the very intellectual environment of that era provided the opportunity for demons to replace angels as messengers of superior truth. Not only Bodin, but the works of Dominicans Sebastien Michaelis and Francois Domptius, and even Teresa of Avila's visions, provided demonic as well as angelic insights into a world beyond.

Metaphysical explorations of angelology within the Society of Jesus reveals a strong emphasis on the role of guardianship, according to Trevor Johnson. He describes the spiritual and moral meanings of angelic guardians from the perspective of popular devotional practices. Angelic devotion was especially popularized by St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Francesco Albertini, and Cornelius a Lapide. Devotion to angels, although potentially distracting from the faith, was always portrayed as a means for securing God's assistance in cooperation with human free will. As such, suggests Johnson, this emphasis became "virtually a substitute pneumatology" in several cases (p. 212).

Angels in early modern Ireland are the subject of Raymond Gillespie's contribution. Drawing upon Irish iconography, Gillespie shows the significance of angelic activities, particularly that of the archangel, Michael. Protestant fear of idolatry, however, precluded a strong angelology among the Irish, with the exception of an oft-repeated and popular story of the miraculous preservation of an infant son of Dr. Faithful Teate, a Church of England minister. His story echoed the biblical narrative of Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 21), and thus could not be completely dismissed, yet neither could it be corroborated as angelic activity with certitude.

Seventeenth-century Spain provides a marked contrast in angelology, according to Maria Tausiet's study, which was translated by Adrian J. Pearce. Analyzing a five-year outbreak of supposed demonic possession of over sixty women in a mountainous area of Spain, Tausiet relies upon two treatises written by the Benedictine priest, Blasco Lanuza, and the substantial amount of literature that arose from the incident. A question of theodicy is raised by Tausiet, a valid concern that is never adequately answered in this chapter. Her study concludes that reliance upon guardian angels as divine servants is the final answer for certain victory over evil.

Conversations with angels in Paradise Lost are the central focus of Joad Raymond's chapter, "With the Tongues of Angels." Drawing on the doctrine of accommodation, by which divine truths are capable of being communicated in words understandable to humans with limited capacity, Raymond emphasizes the strengths of poetry. Although Thomas Aquinas stated that angels speak without words, imposing their thoughts into human minds, English divines often claimed physical corporeality to angels in conformity with English natural philosophy and John Milton's imaginative narrative. Raymond carefully and convincingly demonstrates that Milton's worldview and melodious poetry portray continuity with the culture of his day.

Heavenly messengers, whether angelic or demonic, were scarce in Puritan New England, yet Elizabeth Reis shows that they were not completely absent. Based on her research of the Salem witch events, she shows the ambivalence experienced by these puritans, since one could never be sure whether a celestial visitor was demonic or divine. She notes that the leading puritan divine, Cotton Mather, claimed to have experienced an angelic visitation, yet Anne Hutchinson of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was expelled for claiming immediate revelations. In the early eighteenth century, angelic visitations rose along with the popular religious revivals, especially related to reports of heavenly certainty from the dying.

Knowledge of magic is essential to Owen Davies's chapter, "Angels in Elite and Popular Magic, 1650-1790." Davies reports on a variety of spiritual entities encountered in England around the eighteenth century. Unsolicited angelic visitations and super-human empowerments were attributed by cunning-folk to fairies and familiars. Magicians, on the other hand, employed rituals and objects for scrying, such as crystal balls, talismans, charms, and even on occasion plain water. Citing an "evangelical, mystical and prophetic culture" (p. 316), which provided an environment of renewed interest in occult magic, Davies concludes that the phenomenon diminished significantly, only to give place in the nineteenth century to spiritualism.

Entering the world of the metaphysical and angelic is always rife with potential distractions and distortions. These essays have avoided both the ostentatious and the insipid by providing solid research and scholarly insight. A concluding final chapter with questions and suggestions for further research would have made this book an even more beneficial resource for future studies and graduate student research projects. As it is, this volume begins to fill a recognized lacuna in the area of angelology for the early modern period. The various authors' perspectives demonstrate that much more can be discovered and presented in this engaging area of religious-cultural research. I hope that future studies will be done, expanding and exploring this area to a greater degree, particularly among Jewish and Christian scholars.

Note

[1]. David Keck, Angels and Angelology in the Middle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

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Citation: Timothy Maschke. Review of Marshall, Peter; Walsham, Alexandra, eds., Angels in the Early Modern World. H-German, H-Net Reviews. March, 2007.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13007

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