The latest survey carried out by Gallup reveals that less than half of US respondents hold religion to be of any importance to them. Yet when the same people were asked whether they believed in angels, 69 per cent said yes – more than the number who professed a belief in heaven, hell or the Devil.
This same paradox is visible across western popular culture. In art, music, literature, film and television, angels endure even as religiosity declines and God is whitewashed out of public life.
Angels are central to all three Abrahamic faiths, as well as other monotheistic religions such as Zoroastrianism. They have parallels within polytheistic traditions – the Vishnudutas, or messengers of Vishnu, in Hinduism, for example. The New Age movement invokes traditional angels as autonomous spiritual helpers, while communication with one’s “Holy Guardian Angel” is a central aim of occultism. Yet it is within Catholicism that the most developed theology of angels is to be found, as well as the richest artistic tradition.
