Angels of the Bible: Finding Grace, Beauty, and Meaning
Winner of a Bronze Medal 2020 Illumination Book Award in the Devotional category
by Kate Moorehead with Scott Brown
“Angels stand at the edges of our consciousness.”
What must it have been like for the first humans who came upon the Grand Canyon? Can you imagine the awe and wonder they had as they stood on the edge of the world as they knew it, overlooking that grand hole in the earth which covers such roughly 2000 square miles! Perhaps the same is true for rational humans who observe or experience angels which “stand at the edge of our consciousness!”
In Kate Moorehead’s remarkable book Angels of the Bible, readers are inspired to pay close attention to those thin places where reality and mystery are knit together with the presence of the divine in the form of angels. We are reminded that since the beginning of time, humans have experienced angels in various forms, and learning about them allows us to accept them as an essential part of our humanity and spirituality.
Having read all of Kate Moorehead’s books, it is not surprising to me that in her Introduction, she admits that “we tend to avoid discussion of <angels> among intellectual circles.” That’s just like Kate; bright and intellectual as she is, her books, her writing and her preaching are fully approachable and simple. She does what C. S. Lewis says is the essence of the truest understanding: she puts her beliefs and her faith in the simplest of terms. And so this gem of a book radiates with divine simplicity as it unravels the mystery of angels, their grace, their beauty and their meaning, leaving the reader with a greater sense of the essence of wonder, pondering the impossible, these messengers of God which have been present throughout the ages.
The Table of Contents reads like a who’s who of the Bible...why? Because angels appeared to many many people in the Bible. From Adam and Eve to Abraham to Job to Mary and the Wise Men, Paul and John, angels were an integral part of what God has done and is doing in the lives of humankind. If we are to take the Bible as something more than a history book, we must open our minds to the continued existence of angels.
Art Historian and Professor Scott Brown’s commentary on angels, along with 30 full color illustrations depicting appearances by angels as recorded in art throughout history, provides the perfect complement to the book. My only recommendation would be to publish this book in hardback form because the illustrations are so beautiful.
Kate recommends using this book as a devotional, not as an intellectual study of the dimensions of quantum physics. Pray daily with and for angels, look for them in your everyday lives, and at the edges of your consciousness, and everywhere in between. Angels can be like a heavenly GPS; when they appear, it is often to someone who is lost and afraid and needs to go in a different direction. If you haven’t seen an angel before, you might just have an experience similar to the first folks who saw the Grand Canyon...awe and wonder and more beauty than you could ever have imagined!
As Kate says, evidence shows that if you want to be visited by an angel, “outside is the best place” ... like at grand canyons!
Owene Courtney, reviewer
Director Christian Formation and Spirituality, St. John's Cathedral
