On the tide of the angels - popularity of angel stories - Cover Story

Christian Century, March 1, 1995 by Trudy Bush

Burnham goes on to declare that we don't have to believe in God in order to pray. Prayer, like gravity, is a law of the universe, and if we do it right our prayers are answered "instantly, with an abundance of delight; for it is the pleasure of the universe to give us what we need." In this happy cosmos, there is no need for people to look out for each other, to work for justice, or to wrestle with evil. Stroked by angel wings, we can rest in a warm, nurturing natural world.

"To move angels center stage is to trivialize Christianity," Cunningham says, a contention most of the recent angel books readily bear out. Even a devout Catholic like Freeman, who in Touched by Angels (Warner) repeatedly reminds us that angels come from God and point us to God, has only the most vapid things to say about God. Though she is quite sure about how angels are working in the world today, all she tells us about God is that God is love, and that we search for God by examining ourselves and writing down everything about "however we conceive him, her, it to be." We then continue our search by using prayer and meditation techniques "from any tradition that can properly relax and discipline the physical body so the spirit can be freed to soar with the angels." For some people such a book may be a first step toward religious faith, but in itself it is Pablum.

Many of these books also trivialize angels. For most writers, only guardian angels exist. And these guardians sometimes perform remarkably trivial tasks, such as helping a tired mother change the sheets on her child's bed. Even the best of the books that focus on stories of angelic encounters, such as those by Joan Wester Anderson, do not evaluate these narratives. All too often, the angelic encounter seems to result in little more than a warm feeling. Only occasionally does it transform lives or turn people outward in service. The books present angels in our own image. Though angels are sinless spirits, they understand and sympathize with us. They differ from us only in ways that can benefit us. And, paradoxically, these spiritual beings seem to be more concerned with our physical than our spiritual welfare.

Finally, much of the recent angel lore is at odds with Christian orthodoxy in the way it emphasizes the duality of body and spirit. Angels are superior to humans because they are pure spirit, many of the books suggest. Some claim that angels are the spirits of those who have died, while others suggest that one of the main angelic tasks is to help the souls of the dying separate from their bodies and to escort the souls to heaven. The Christian understanding that we are physical beings who will be resurrected in glorified bodies is missing from modem angelology.

BUT THOUGH the glut of angel books may make serious Christians feel a little nauseous, some of them are worth some attention. A number of these are reissues of earlier volumes, most notably Graham's, Adler's and MacGregor's. Another significant reissue, Doubleday's Angels and Awakenings: Stories of the Miraculous by Great Modern Writers, would make a fine gift. Doubleday's Angels in Our Midst, compiled by the editors of Guideposts and originally published in 1993 as Angels Among Us, has two useful sections not found in other recent volumes: a summary of what the Bible says about angels, and a section of stories about ordinary people who, by living Christian lives, act as "angels" to others. (Many angel books seem to assume that acts of kindness or rescue must be performed by supernatural beings.) Joan Wester Anderson's lovely children's book, An Angel to Watch Over Me (Ballantine), contains well-told, appealing and genuinely religious "true stories of children's encounters with angels." Stories of guardian angels seem to fit more appropriately with the lore of childhood.