A ministering spirit or divine messenger; one of an order of spiritual beings superior to man in power and intelligence, who are the attendants and messengers of the Deity; hence b. one of the fallen spirits, who rebelled against God; c. a guardian or attendant spirit; d. figurative, a person who resembles an angel in attributes or actions.
2. Any messenger of God, as a prophet or preacher; a pastor or minister of a church; poetical, a messenger; figurative, in angel of death.
3. transferred, A conventional figure with wings.
(The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1975)
Photon
A corpuscle or unit particle of light.
(The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1975)
A quantum of electromagnetic radiation that has zero rest mass and energy equal to the product of the frequency of the radiation and the Planck constant. In some contexts it is convenient to regard the photon as an elementary particle.
(The Penguin Dictionary of Physics, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1975)
Table of Contents
Also by Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Preface Introduction Dionysius The Areopagite St. Thomas Aquinas Hildegard of Bingen CONCLUSION APPENDIX NOTES Index
Preface
It may seem unlikely that a scientist and a theologian would discuss angels in the twenty-first century. Both disciplines at the end of the modern era appear equally embarrassed by this subject.
Nevertheless, although angels have been ignored by the scientific and theological establishments, recent surveys have shown that many people still believe in them. In the United States, for example, over two-thirds believe in their existence, and one-third state that they have personally felt an angelic presence in their lives. Half believe in the existence of devils.1 Angels persist.
We are entering a new phase of both science and theology, and the subject of angels becomes surprisingly relevant again. Both the new cosmology and the old angelology raise significant questions about the existence and role of consciousness at levels beyond the human. When the two of us held our first discussions on this subject, we were fascinated by the parallels between Thomas Aquinas speaking of angels in the Middle Ages and Albert Einstein speaking of photons in this century. Hence the title of this book, The Physics of Angels.
The grassroots revival of interest in angels is timely. Much of the present interest centers on experiences of help and assistance at times of need. It is intensely personal in nature, and individualistic in spirit.
Recently we have both had the privilege to sit down with Lorna Byrne, the Irish peasant woman and grandmother, still illiterate, who has now published three books on angels with whom she has been in contact since she was a little child. She was instructed not to tell of her encounters until given the word, and that word came after her husband died. Her books rapidly became bestsellers world wide, having appeared in at least twenty-six languages at the time we write this preface. It was clear to us both while speaking with Lorna that she is as authentic as they come, a true “sod of the earth” of green Ireland, direct and matter of fact, joyful and hard working and generous.
But she insists that the angels have some important messages for us today, messages of their disappointment in the paltry advances we have made as a species and, surprisingly enough, messages about the role America can and needs to play in the world’s spiritual awakening—a role based on the fact that in America so many religious traditions have gathered and interfaith practice is most developed. In her most recent book A Message of Hope from the Angels, Lorna emphasizes how “we all have a part to play in the spiritual evolution of humanity.”
Lorna prefers being interviewed in “interfaith events” rather than giving public lectures. One such event occurred in New York City at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal church when black Baptists, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims gathered for her public interview. Also present at the event in New York, she tells us, were angels who “packed the chapel” and she reports that “there was great joy and celebration among them at this wonderful gathering of different faiths.” The angels were as pleased as she was because people had come not to convert each other but with open hearts in order “to listen, to pray, and to celebrate, and not to justify their own religion or to claim that it was superior.”
Lorna’s descriptions of angels as “balls of fire” parallels some of Hildegard of Bingen’s visions that we relay in this book while treating her writings on angels. Also, Hidlegard tells us that angels praise human work, and Lorna too makes many references to angels’ appreciation of the work that humans do—and might do if we were to wake up more fully—to contribute to the advancement of our evolution, one that takes us beyond reptilian brain “I win/you lose” dynamic to an authentic practice of our deep interdependence with one another and with all of creation.
I, Matthew, am very aware of Aquinas’ teachings that angels “carry thoughts from prophet to prophet” and that angels “announce the divine silence” and that angels “can’t help but love” and that angels learn exclusively from intuition, so as we develop and honor our intuition more we may well be running into angels along the way. And that they assist us in many ways including the unfolding of the process of evolution. When I met Lorna I shared some of these teachings from Aquinas and she very much seconded them based on her experience, and she has underscored them also in her books on angels. Great things can happen with the help of the angels.
How about you? Do you sense the angels among us? Do you encounter the “speck of light” (Eckhart called it the “spark of the soul”) that is within us all. If so, what is its message? What are we needing to learn? Hopefully this new version of this book will continue to ground angelology in a substantive discussion from both religious and scientific perspectives of what angels are busy trying to accomplish with us humans in these trying and significant times.
THE TRADITIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF ANGELS IN THE WEST
The traditional Western understanding of angels is much deeper and richer than the more individualistic modern angel literature would suggest, and far more concerned with community and our common development and our relationships with one another, God, and the universe. These values fit with a more holistic or organic understanding of nature and of society.
Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge common experiences that emerge in all world cultures and religions when we are living in an ever-shrinking global village. All cultures, including our own, acknowledge the existence of spirits at
