Today, we dismiss many of these questions because we have separated science and religion, the physical and the metaphysical world to such a great degree. When we hear of angels today, we think of miracles and children's Christmas pageants. Our image of angels is long white robes, white feathery wings, and of course the illuminating halo circling the angel's head. There is no burning curiosity that urgently needs an answer to these questions. However, in the Renaissance era, writers such as John Salkeld and Christopher Fowler had ideas on the form of an angel.
The ideas of angelic form stem from scripture. From the Bible comes the idea and overall acceptance that angels have an anthropomorphic form. In Genesis, they are shown as sword-wielding cherubim barring the way to Eden (Genesis 3.24). In the New Testament, they are portrayed as messengers at Christ’s resurrection in shining white garments (Matthew 28.2). Our society has latched onto these images of angels, but what about the ones from the Renaissance, when the physical and metaphysical worlds were so close that people wanted to know if angels could eat or be touched?
Fowler, who recounted the trials of John Pordage, delivers an account of an angel's appearance. "He was of an incredible beauty, his countenance more white than snow, more ruddy than the rose, cross'don his breast, his locks long and curled, more clear than polished gold, shining with such brightnesse, that she could read her matters at midnight, (Daemonium Meridianum: Sathan at Noon, p.7) Fowler is one of the believers that angels do not appear to humans. Devils appear to humans under the guise of angels.
In John Deacon’s 1656 writing “A Publick Discovery of a Secret Deceit,” a man named James Nayler who had previously claimed to have had conversations with angels found that his angels were truly devils. He was accused, then, of blasphemy “the Man of sin Unmasked, his Sheepskin clothing of glorious pretences pulled off; and his Wolvith inside set forth in its colours,” (Deacon, 1). The man was a Quaker, a religious sect that already suffered from disapproval by other Christians. This mistake of believing Satan to be an angel brought nothing more than more disgrace on the Quakers. Deacon chastises and condemns them, saying “remember Satan hath transformed himself into an Angel of light; and if you be his Ministers as the tree, Antichrist is known by his fruits,” (Deacon, 41).
A more optimistic opinion on the appearances of angels was the belief that they were incorporeal, yet made of an air-like substance and could take on any form that fit the situation. In his 1613 publication "A Treatise of Angels," theologian John Salkeld discusses all imaginable ideas about angels, backed up with other religious figures and scriptural support. Under the belief that God, as the most perfect being, was the only entity that could exist in a completely disembodied form, angels must be of some body, though not of flesh (Salkeld, 31). He later proposes the idea that angels take on bodies made of air, but cannot speak with these air-bodies. They can't speak, however they do communicate to us. “It cannot be declared neyther how the Angels doe outwardly speake into us in our eare; neyther how inwardly in our hearts,” (Salkeld, 117).
While I can understand that skepticism of the age and attempt to eradicate all possibilities of false worship, I find comfort in Salkeld description of the angels. With this account, I picture angels as ethereal beauties who cannot speak, yet speak tons more than imaginable by speaking directly to one's heart. An angel can be all the things that we imagine today, but the most important aspect is how they touch our hearts. Just hope you angel isn't a devil in disguise, a wolf in sheep's clothing!
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