Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Great Moments in Research: Scientist Says Angels Can't Fly

OK, I hate to be the one to break it you, but . . . you've missed the point entirely.

Angels' wings are metaphorical! SYMBOLIC! They represent the angels' ability to travel far and wide in their office as messengers of God, and they're also symbolic of the sublimity of the angels themselves. St. John Chrysostom said all this back in the 4th century AD.

We're just used to seeing angels in art, where they look more or less the same -- like human beings with large wings. But it's really an artistic convention. It's iconography. NOBODY is really saying that angels actually have a particular kind of wing -- or even that they have a particular kind of anatomy (all right, except for that weird passage in Isaiah where he talks about seraphim with six wings singing near the throne of God).

Anyway, God save us from pedants!

Next up: how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? :-P

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