A wealth of information on how angels can add a new dimension to faith, without getting caught up in the New Age mythology or diverting attention away from Christ.

In this captivating double life, Adam Gopnik searches for the men behind the icons of emancipation and evolution. Born by cosmic coincidence on the same day in 1809 and separated by an ocean, Lincoln and Darwin coauthored our sense of history and our understanding of man’s place in the world. Here Gopnik reveals these two men as they really were: family men and social climbers, ambitious manipulators and courageous adventurers, grieving parents and brilliant scholars. Above all we see them as thinkers and writers, making and witnessing the great changes in thought that mark truly modern times.

The only author already in print discussing the history of higher angels appears to be Mother Alexandra, an Orthodox nun who wrote The Holy Angels. This presentation also concentrates on those higher angels but also briefly reviews those lower less dramatic guardian angels. After studying angel apparitions in the Old Testament, the Christian era presents a dramatic increase in angel activities. Joining the older traditional Michael and Gabriel, we are introduced, at the Transfiguration, to Moses and Elijah, those two giants of Judaism These latter have, somewhere in time, become new archangels. On that Mount Tabor, Jesus also acquires archangel status, when the mighty spirit of David, the third giant, completes exactly one thousand years of penance, and is transfigured into this carpenter from Nazareth. Mary, the Mother of Angels in the Roman Catholic tradition, receives archangel status upon her death. Also emerging in that first Christian century is Satan, the Fallen Archangel. A serious consideration of Satan is vital, because each one of us must overcome Satan’s earthly temptations in order to reach the Promised Land. Thereafter, Mary and Jesus appear in angel form over the Christian centuries – sometimes together, more often alone - in their attempt to bring peace to a troubled world..

Rhyming text and illustrations explain what angels are and how they watch over God's children.

Recently angels have made a remarkable comeback in the popular imagination; their real heyday, however, was the Middle Ages. From the great shrines dedicated to Michael the Archangel at Mont-St-Michel and Monte Garano to the elaborate metaphysical speculations of the great thirteenth-century scholastics, angels dominated the physical, temporal, and intellectual landscape of the medieval West. This book offers a full-scale study of angels and angelology in the Middle Ages. Seeking to discover how and why angels became so important in medieval society, David Keck considers a wide range of fascinating questions such as: Why do angels appear on baptismal fonts? How and why did angels become normative for certain members of the church? How did they become a required course of study? Did popular beliefs about angels diverge from the angelologies of the theologians? Why did some heretics claim to derive their authority from heavenly spirits? Keck spreads his net wide in the attempt to catch traces of angels and angelic beliefs in as many portions of the medieval world as possible. Metaphysics and mystery plays, prayers and pilgrimages, Cathars and cathedrals-all these and many more disparate sources taken together reveal a society deeply engaged with angels on all its levels and in some unlikely ways.

Angel stories from the Bible — for kids

Modern believers may be tempted to look upon angels as one of the more fanciful elements of Scripture, but this illuminating and entertaining collection of angel stories from the Bible shows that there are just too many angels for them to be metaphorical, allegorical, or unimportant.

So that children will come to know and learn to revere angels, Marigold Hunt explains what angels are (and are not!) and gathers here in one volume most of the stories of angels in the Bible, including exciting tales of:

Children will be charmed by these exciting tales.

Read an excerpt.

The Unknown History of Jewish Women—On Learning and Illiteracy: On Slavery and Liberty is a comprehensive study on the history of Jewish women, which discusses their absence from the Jewish Hebrew library of the "People of the Book" and interprets their social condition in relation to their imposed ignorance and exclusion from public literacy. The book begins with a chapter on communal education for Jewish boys, which was compulsory and free of charge for the first ten years in all traditional Jewish communities. The discussion continues with the striking absence of any communal Jewish education for girls until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the implications of this fact for twentieth-century immigration to Israel (1949-1959) The following chapters discuss the social, cultural and legal contexts of this reality of female illiteracy in the Jewish community—a community that placed a supreme value on male education. The discussion focuses on the patriarchal order and the postulations, rules, norms, sanctions and mythologies that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, laid the religious foundations of this discriminatory reality.

A thorough, comprehensive guide to the world of angels Angels, whose principal employment is the protection and encouragement of human beings, are more popular than ever. In this age of uncertainty, it is easy to understand why the concept of angels is so comforting. While much has been written about angels throughout history, no single source examines them as thoroughly or as thoughtfully as Angels A to Z. Written by an “angel expert” and a recognized authority on nontraditional religious movements, this enlightening resource is one of the most comprehensive books on angels and angel-related topics currently available. More than 300 entries, drawn from multiple religions, such as Christianity, Islam, and Hindu traditions, as well as from pop culture, are included. Celebrity angels, obscure angels still waiting for their big break, classifications of angels, guardian angels, fallen angels, biblical figures associated with angels, angels in art and architecture, and angels in the media and literature, how ancient, contemporary, and pop cultures represent angels in their mythology, folklore, architecture, art, literature, religion, and so much more. Angels A to Z explores a wide assortment of topics, including ... Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer, and other biblical angels Angels in various religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism) Different classifications of angels such as the Valkyries from Norse mythology and Hafaza from Islamic tradition Fallen angels, guardian angels, obscure angels, and angels across religious traditions Authors who write about angels, including Frank Peretti, Joan Wester Anderson, Eileen Freeman, Terry Lynn Taylor, and others Artists who depict angels such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Glenda Green, and Karyn Martin-Karl Beloved fictional characters like Clarence from the film It’s a Wonderful Life If you want to know more about the rich and important history of these spiritual beings, Angels A to Z is the answer to your prayers. With more than 130 photos and illustrations, this riveting read is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.

Examining how scholarly writing has contended or conspired with discourses of enchantment from the Middle Ages to the present.