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The Angels
Dom Anscar Vonier, Abbot of Buckfast, was among England's most celebrated homilists and theological writers in the early twentieth century. In this concise primer, Vonier introduces the reader to one of the most noble, but overlooked, elements of Catholic theology: the nature of angels. Drawing from Scripture, Patristic sources, and St. Thomas Aquinas, Vonier unfolds the metaphysical and moral characteristics of this mysterious group of spirits. Far from the soft, sentimentalized depiction of angels in much modern artwork, what emerges from Vonier's account is a picture of sheer vastness and awe, of an innumerable variety of pure spirits, filling the infinite space between God and humanity. To know these greatest of created beings, Vonier writes, will be "a great element in man's eternal happiness" and "the last thing in created love; greater love than that there could not be except man's communion with God himself."
90 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Anscar Vonier
38 books7 followersAbbot Vonier was a Benedictine monk who lived from 1876 to 1938. He was elected Abbot of Buckfast Abbey, England, in 1906, and served in that capacity until his death. During his lifetime Vonier gained fame as the rebuilder of Buckfast, which had been left in ruins following the Reformation, and as the author of some 15 books of popular theology — works which developed “a vast company of admirers who welcomed every new book of his with enthusiasm.”
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November 2, 2024
''...dealing with man’s supernatural career on earth, have revealed to us much of the unseen world, but only incidentally, and in so far as it concerns man’s eternal welfare. We must bear in mind this relative position of our angelology in the Scriptures, and not expect more than fragments of angelic history; yet those fragments are precious and instructive in the extreme.''
Fr. Anscar as a Benedictine and as a Theologian and a Benedictine does a very great justice and good work on priming Catholic angelology and some briefs on demonology in this little book. Here, he will talk about how these passages- though just fragments of the observable angelic life and attitude, leave so much for us to have.
''All this confirms the truth of a remark already made, that the angels are not the principal theme of our Scriptures, but only an incidental one.''
With experience, we read in the Scriptures various scenes and episodes concerning the angels which make them, as he rightly claims, an incidental part of the biblical story. They come and go, do this and do that, are told to be watching and are said to be having. There is no mere one book or continual phrase that tell us all about angels in general but what appears to us through-out the journey.
''God multiplies created power, not because he could not effect the result himself, but because it is a more beautiful universe which has a hierarchy of potentialities.''
Fr. Anscar will go in the best possible depth he can with simplicity to talk about the nature and assignment of angels. Why they exist and what is their purpose? We hear not of them in the story of creation and yet despite this omission of details, we know they very much do still exist. Their creation is certainly more ancient and their reality is even more revealing.
''Here again we must not ask for precise facts, but must be satisfied with the general principle.''
He does not discount that certain questions may arise from the reader by having some curiosities about the particulars. He answers calmly and boldly that for many of these, we cannot concretely know them but speculate with the imagination which is more of a speculative entertainment rather than what can be intellectually described, for there is a lack of information surrounding some of those questions. However the smaller and fine details may be ruled out by what we already generally know, so we do not need to fancy ourselves with apocrypha.
''The spirits have not received a mission to interfere with man’s free action; they have received a
mission to save man from the results of his own evil deeds as far as is compatible with the higher dictates of God’s justice . . . The spirits fight for us to a great extent without our knowledge, their mission is essentially one of guardianship of a lower being, and it is carried out quite independently of that lower being’s participation or recognition.''
When it comes to describing their purpose and their influence, we must be careful to attribute either too much to spirits but also caution ourselves from giving too little credit for their due. Spirits battling and even having territory is something talked about by the scholastics and hinderances to their mission, but not failure, can be seen even in places such as Daniel. The author will also talk about guardianship over all of humanity and how the numeration of angels is more for the purposes of perfection rather than the necessity for which we depend upon numbers for daily life.
''There is no evil principle having, so to speak, an estate by itself; all evil is an apostasy of a being that was primarily good; all evil is a bad use of the good things of God . . . St. Thomas says that some spirits chose the second alternative; they preferred their natural glory in its isolation to the community of the supernatural charity; and this is the fall of the angels. The demons are called apostate spirits, because they fell away from the vocation and the grace to which they had been called by the Creator; they did not persevere in their supernatural election as did the good angels.''
We must also carefully be aware by what way the angels fell. These spirits naturally have no spatial restriction, they were created to be semi-self sufficient (still composed of essence and existence yet have various superior and radical aspects that are unique to them by nature, always, compared to a human), they were created with this ''evening knowledge'' that would prepare them to receive the ''morning knowledge''- to know things according to their glory rather than their natural order. The demons fell not due to concupiscence or through sensual means but a different kind of temptation that can only be described as prideful and envy, not in any human sense, but as a reaction to the expectation of what it would be like to become something potentially greater than what they are. The selfish attitude of these spirits was clearly mutable and the theologians can describe that rejection was possible due to this reason.
''Spiritism of the modern type is a more serious, a more alarming matter. It does not belong directly to either angelology or demonology, as the modern spiritist claims to hold intercourse with disembodied human spirits; however, there is a strong presumption that spiritistic phenomena, when they are not impostures, are things of evil origin; viewed from that angle, spiritism is only a province of demonology. I am aware, of course, that all modern spiritists repudiate dealings with the dark powers of the unseen world.''
In our most recent times and the times of this Benedictine, the movement of ''spiritism'' has created illicit beliefs and a attitude that, though sincere, must be greatly avoided. A province of demonology and not demonology proper is being touched by this false sense of mysticism and it does great harm. The author writes that the refutation to this is predominately through the warnings of revelation. Other refutations which are incidental and consequential that are outside of the sacred text are outlining the negative experiences and the general destruction this movement produces.
''The bliss of the elect will be essentially this — to possess all truth, to be in contact with all reality, to see all beauty. To see the angels, to behold them, must of necessity constitute a source of happiness greater than anything which the visible world could afford; in fact, it is the supreme created source of happiness; God himself, clearly seen in the Beatific Vision, being the uncreated source of happiness. . . That there will be more than mere association of men and angels in the
glory of eternity is clear from our Lord’s words in speaking of the elect at
the resurrection: 'Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels and are
the children of God, being the children of the resurrection' (Lk. 20:36) This equality means more than a mere similarity, it means a community of privilege which makes of the human elect and the spirit elect one society''
Finally, to bring us back to ground, the Christian knows that the society of God is one made up of souls and spirits. This is purposeful and desirable for this communion is seen to be very joyful.
Fr. Anscar as a Benedictine and as a Theologian and a Benedictine does a very great justice and good work on priming Catholic angelology and some briefs on demonology in this little book. Here, he will talk about how these passages- though just fragments of the observable angelic life and attitude, leave so much for us to have.
''All this confirms the truth of a remark already made, that the angels are not the principal theme of our Scriptures, but only an incidental one.''
With experience, we read in the Scriptures various scenes and episodes concerning the angels which make them, as he rightly claims, an incidental part of the biblical story. They come and go, do this and do that, are told to be watching and are said to be having. There is no mere one book or continual phrase that tell us all about angels in general but what appears to us through-out the journey.
''God multiplies created power, not because he could not effect the result himself, but because it is a more beautiful universe which has a hierarchy of potentialities.''
Fr. Anscar will go in the best possible depth he can with simplicity to talk about the nature and assignment of angels. Why they exist and what is their purpose? We hear not of them in the story of creation and yet despite this omission of details, we know they very much do still exist. Their creation is certainly more ancient and their reality is even more revealing.
''Here again we must not ask for precise facts, but must be satisfied with the general principle.''
He does not discount that certain questions may arise from the reader by having some curiosities about the particulars. He answers calmly and boldly that for many of these, we cannot concretely know them but speculate with the imagination which is more of a speculative entertainment rather than what can be intellectually described, for there is a lack of information surrounding some of those questions. However the smaller and fine details may be ruled out by what we already generally know, so we do not need to fancy ourselves with apocrypha.
''The spirits have not received a mission to interfere with man’s free action; they have received a
mission to save man from the results of his own evil deeds as far as is compatible with the higher dictates of God’s justice . . . The spirits fight for us to a great extent without our knowledge, their mission is essentially one of guardianship of a lower being, and it is carried out quite independently of that lower being’s participation or recognition.''
When it comes to describing their purpose and their influence, we must be careful to attribute either too much to spirits but also caution ourselves from giving too little credit for their due. Spirits battling and even having territory is something talked about by the scholastics and hinderances to their mission, but not failure, can be seen even in places such as Daniel. The author will also talk about guardianship over all of humanity and how the numeration of angels is more for the purposes of perfection rather than the necessity for which we depend upon numbers for daily life.
''There is no evil principle having, so to speak, an estate by itself; all evil is an apostasy of a being that was primarily good; all evil is a bad use of the good things of God . . . St. Thomas says that some spirits chose the second alternative; they preferred their natural glory in its isolation to the community of the supernatural charity; and this is the fall of the angels. The demons are called apostate spirits, because they fell away from the vocation and the grace to which they had been called by the Creator; they did not persevere in their supernatural election as did the good angels.''
We must also carefully be aware by what way the angels fell. These spirits naturally have no spatial restriction, they were created to be semi-self sufficient (still composed of essence and existence yet have various superior and radical aspects that are unique to them by nature, always, compared to a human), they were created with this ''evening knowledge'' that would prepare them to receive the ''morning knowledge''- to know things according to their glory rather than their natural order. The demons fell not due to concupiscence or through sensual means but a different kind of temptation that can only be described as prideful and envy, not in any human sense, but as a reaction to the expectation of what it would be like to become something potentially greater than what they are. The selfish attitude of these spirits was clearly mutable and the theologians can describe that rejection was possible due to this reason.
''Spiritism of the modern type is a more serious, a more alarming matter. It does not belong directly to either angelology or demonology, as the modern spiritist claims to hold intercourse with disembodied human spirits; however, there is a strong presumption that spiritistic phenomena, when they are not impostures, are things of evil origin; viewed from that angle, spiritism is only a province of demonology. I am aware, of course, that all modern spiritists repudiate dealings with the dark powers of the unseen world.''
In our most recent times and the times of this Benedictine, the movement of ''spiritism'' has created illicit beliefs and a attitude that, though sincere, must be greatly avoided. A province of demonology and not demonology proper is being touched by this false sense of mysticism and it does great harm. The author writes that the refutation to this is predominately through the warnings of revelation. Other refutations which are incidental and consequential that are outside of the sacred text are outlining the negative experiences and the general destruction this movement produces.
''The bliss of the elect will be essentially this — to possess all truth, to be in contact with all reality, to see all beauty. To see the angels, to behold them, must of necessity constitute a source of happiness greater than anything which the visible world could afford; in fact, it is the supreme created source of happiness; God himself, clearly seen in the Beatific Vision, being the uncreated source of happiness. . . That there will be more than mere association of men and angels in the
glory of eternity is clear from our Lord’s words in speaking of the elect at
the resurrection: 'Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels and are
the children of God, being the children of the resurrection' (Lk. 20:36) This equality means more than a mere similarity, it means a community of privilege which makes of the human elect and the spirit elect one society''
Finally, to bring us back to ground, the Christian knows that the society of God is one made up of souls and spirits. This is purposeful and desirable for this communion is seen to be very joyful.
December 17, 2014
A readable and laudable presentation of the Catholic (specifically Thomist) position on angels. Note this was written before Vatican II, so while there is nothing unorthodox, modern readers may be struck by antiquated pronoun use and expressions. 4 Stars only for brevity; it is quite a good summary.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews