Angels in the Early Modern World

This volume explores the role of belief in the existence of angels in the early modern world.

Peter Marshall (Edited by), Alexandra Walsham (Author)

9780521843324, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 August 2006

342 pages, 25 b/w illus.
24.8 x 18.1 x 2.7 cm, 0.83 kg

"The essays in this volume are cogent and painstakingly researched. They explore aspects of the early modern period that have not been widely examined...This volume will without a doubt appeal to scholars of early modern religious and cultural history a well as those of art history and literary studies." --Richard F. Johnson, Harper College: The Catholic Historical Review

Belief in the importance of angels was as widespread and intense in the early modern era as it had been in the middle ages. This volume is the first to consider how ideas about the nature, existence and activities of angels negotiated the religious, intellectual and cultural upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The contributors explore the fate and fortunes of these heavenly protectors and messengers against the backdrop of the Renaissance and Reformation and in the context of scientific change. Ranging from the British Isles and continental Europe to New England and Latin America, they consider how angels were implicated in the processes of Protestant and Catholic renewal, their relationship with witchcraft and magic, and their representation in literature and art. Based on original research, the essays offer genuinely fresh insight into the moments and movements that defined the early modern world.

Preface and acknowledgments
1. Migrations of angels in the early modern world Peter Marshall and Alexandra Walsham
2. The Renaissance angel Bruce Gordon
3. Luther on the angels Philip M. Soergel
4. Angels around the deathbed: variations on a theme in the English art of dying Peter Marshall
5. Angels conquering and conquered: changing perceptions in Spanish America Fernando Cervantes
6. Angels and idols in England's long Reformation Alexandra Walsham
7. Dubious messengers: Bodin's daemon, the spirit world and the Sadducees Robin Briggs
8. Guardian angels and the Society of Jesus Trevor Johnson
9. Imagining angels in early modern Ireland Raymond Gillespie
10. 'Patronage of angels and combat of demons': good versus evil in seventeenth-century Spain María Tausiet
11. 'With the tongues of angels': angelic conversations in Paradise Lost and seventeenth-century England Joad Raymond
12. Otherworldly visions: angels, devils and gender in puritan New England Elizabeth Reis
13. Angels in elite and popular magic, 1650–1790 Owen Davies.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]