http://www.domcentral.org/farr...mpanion/compfram.htm

I have been reading this little meditation book before bedtime for years, and have found in it much wisdom and guidance for my life. Dominican Father Walter Farrell has done a superb job in taking St. Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" and translating it into a readable and accessible resource for modern people. Even if one is somewhat "turned off" by classical scholastic theology, it's still a good thing to know and understand this perspective, as it has deeply influenced Christian understanding for many centuries.

Phil,

Thanks for the link.

I find it striking that there are five sections on angels. What systematic theologian today has any sections on angels? Where have all the angels gone? Why the shift?

Walter Wink does a credible job interpreting "principalities and powers" in social terms. I wonder if there is anyone doing similarly high quality work on the psychological side of angelology?

LOL, yes! That's why Thomas was called the "Angelic Doctor."

I think these reflections on angels were a way of clarifying distinctions between created spirit and the uncreated Spirit of God. For Thomas, this was crucial, for it helped to clarify what is unique about human nature -- our spiritual consciousness. In that respect, we are no different from angels, except that we do not possess ourselves so completely as they do as there is the matter of embodiment and how this influences the functioning of our consciousness. Also, Thomas regarded angels as God's first-line of delegated responsibility for governing the universe. It's a lovely theology, with angels assigned all sorts of duties, including one or more to watch out for each individual.

To understand the powers of angels is also to understand the nature of demons, and Thomas is at his best here, too. With almost mathemmatical precision, he describes the key distinctions between good angels and evil ones, what the evil ones now lack, what they are still capable of doing, etc. Again, this clarifies what has happened to human spiritual consciousness re. the Fall.

Is all of this merely theoretical? How much is Thomas describing a level of reality that actually exists? There's no way to know for sure, but he's not exactly out of step with biblical theology, here. Our movement from a pre-modern to modern to post-modern way of looking at things has left the angels behind, for the most part, and that's too bad.

Continuing as a P.S. of sorts.

Ryan, I suspect you've only looked at the contents of volume I. Look at the top of the page and you'll see other volumes, which are not so heavy into angels. Check out the first part of volume II on happiness. It's one of the most positive statements on human nature and the meaning of life that you'll find anywhere. He then goes on to describe how reason and the will are to help us find happiness, then how our emotional passions also point in that direction. Obviously, we can misuse reason, the will, and emotions, but, for Thomas, they are naturally oriented to happiness. This is the basis for what we might call "natural grace."