Word: angellic
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...other clerics are not so sanguine; in many ecclesiastical quarters, the angel revival is a cause for some alarm. Ministers see in the literature the makings of a New Age cult, an easy, undemanding religious faith that may also represent a rejection of mainstream church life. "When you don't believe in God, you believe in every god that comes along -- a tame, domesticated one with a small g," says Malcolm Warford, president of Bangor Theological Seminary. "When you trade mystery for security, you end up with a trivialization...
...eyes of traditional church leaders, the popular authors who render angels into household pets, who invite readers to get in touch with their inner angel, or summon their own "angel psychotherapist," or view themselves as angels in training are trafficking in discount spirituality. And the churches are at a loss for a response. "What's troubling is that many religious leaders today acknowledge this but don't know what to do about it," admits George Landes, professor of Old Testament at Union Theological , Seminary. "They remain skeptical of the extravagance of angelology but don't know what...
Even within the Roman Catholic Church, there is debate over how to handle this revival of interest. Angels are still important in Catholic devotions and are included in the new Catholic catechism. From childhood, Catholic children have learned the "Prayer to the Guardian Angel," and those who attended Catholic school were often told to leave a little room at their desks for their guardian angels. But the church remains suspicious of reports of supernatural interventions, notes Lawrence Cunningham, chairman of the theology department at Notre Dame. Cunningham has little use for the present popular fervor. "If people want...
...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...
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. In Los Angeles, artist Jill D'Agnenica has been scattering angels all across the neighborhoods that were ravaged by riots last year. In April, on the first anniversary of the turmoil, D'Agnenica distributed four 12-in.-tall plaster magenta cherubs at a prominent African-American church. She has continued to set the brightly painted angels ! on street corners, at bus stops, on walls...