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Angels and Angelology in the Middle Ages
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 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.
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 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.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
6 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
David Keck
14 books46 followersDavid Keck is a New York based writer and teacher who grew up in Winnipeg, Canada.
His novels are published by Tor.
On long winter evenings, he filled pads of newsprint with drawings, cartoons, and stories. His mother made him write on both sides.
After completing degrees in English Literature/History and Education in Winnipeg, he traveled to Britain’s University of Sussex where he earned an MA in creative writing and indulged his taste for exploring the medieval and the Neolithic.
Over the years, he has had the chance to climb through countless castles, cathedrals, tombs, and henges from the South of France to the Orkney Islands. There is something about really being in these places--getting chased by the farmer's dog--that brings the past to life.
David loves to dig up stories that show traces of earlier ways of thinking. He’s endlessly curious about how people actually lived in other times and places, and he wants his readers to join him in an older, stranger world.
In 2004, he moved to New York to marry editor and author Anne Groell. They met in Montreal at the World Fantasy Convention in 2001, and now have an intrepid young daughter together.
For twelve years, he has been teaching English at a public middle school in Washington Heights. He tries to bring his drawings and his imagination to every class, and has become a great proponent of educational technology.
From the streets around the school, you can often see the tower of The Met Cloisters museum, with its medieval treasures, peeking out above the trees. The past is never far away.
David recently fulfilled his childhood ambition of getting his cartoons into print, placing work with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog Magazine, and Random House’s Suvudu website, before it became Unbound Worlds. He currently enjoys populating snapshots of New York's subways, streets, and secret forests with pop-eyed monsters. But, in his fiction, a reader will find the darker side of his imagination.
His novels are published by Tor.
On long winter evenings, he filled pads of newsprint with drawings, cartoons, and stories. His mother made him write on both sides.
After completing degrees in English Literature/History and Education in Winnipeg, he traveled to Britain’s University of Sussex where he earned an MA in creative writing and indulged his taste for exploring the medieval and the Neolithic.
Over the years, he has had the chance to climb through countless castles, cathedrals, tombs, and henges from the South of France to the Orkney Islands. There is something about really being in these places--getting chased by the farmer's dog--that brings the past to life.
David loves to dig up stories that show traces of earlier ways of thinking. He’s endlessly curious about how people actually lived in other times and places, and he wants his readers to join him in an older, stranger world.
In 2004, he moved to New York to marry editor and author Anne Groell. They met in Montreal at the World Fantasy Convention in 2001, and now have an intrepid young daughter together.
For twelve years, he has been teaching English at a public middle school in Washington Heights. He tries to bring his drawings and his imagination to every class, and has become a great proponent of educational technology.
From the streets around the school, you can often see the tower of The Met Cloisters museum, with its medieval treasures, peeking out above the trees. The past is never far away.
David recently fulfilled his childhood ambition of getting his cartoons into print, placing work with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog Magazine, and Random House’s Suvudu website, before it became Unbound Worlds. He currently enjoys populating snapshots of New York's subways, streets, and secret forests with pop-eyed monsters. But, in his fiction, a reader will find the darker side of his imagination.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 24, 2018
Approaching the discussion of medieval angelology primarily through the thought of thirteenth-century Franciscan preacher and scholastic theologian Bonaventure, as well as his peers and more or less direct influences and interlocutors, David Keck explores how the functionality of angels in both the quotidian and soteriological experience of the middle ages was delineated through polyvalent scriptural exegesis and re-presented to the faithful in sermons, art, and even drama. At the same time, and especially for those in religious orders, angels were impressed as models not only of personal ethics, but also hierarchical authority and corporate identity. Whether as guarantors of moral behavior, miraculous benefactors, or objects of mystical contemplation, angels pervaded the discursive and imaginal worlds of medieval Christians.
While the depth and breadth of the subject occasionally exceeds the scope of the text, Keck assiduously directs readers to the sources addressing particular topics in greater detail, and this volume is more than comprehensive as a general survey.
While the depth and breadth of the subject occasionally exceeds the scope of the text, Keck assiduously directs readers to the sources addressing particular topics in greater detail, and this volume is more than comprehensive as a general survey.
Displaying 1 of 1 review