They've made the cover of Time magazine, been the subject of a recent two-hour network news special and been chronicled in the pages of best-selling books. Yet they're the very antithesis of the serial murderers or sexual deviants that have become the steady diet of millions of Americans' inquiring minds.
Angels - and personal encounters with them - have become a topic for open discussion among even the unbelieving, signaling what two authors on the subject see as a national revulsion for the blatant materialism of the '70s and '80s.A poll in conjunction with Time's Dec. 27 cover story on angels paralleled findings of the most recent Deseret News poll (see page B1), showing that 69 percent of Americans believe in the existence of angels. Of those, 49 percent said they believe they have their own guardian angel.
John Ronner, author of "Do You Have a Guardian Angel?" said he believes "the number of people experiencing it (encounters with angels in some form) may be on the rise. The '90s are a more accepting climate for this type of phenomenon. Our culture has tended to shut this out. I remember growing up as a teen in the '60s, it was an extremely materialistic climate - not at all friendly to metaphysical experience."
Scientific materialism was in vogue among scientists, philosophers and even some clergymen, Ronner said. "Remember the existentialist philosophers we were all forced to read in college. That kind of thinking had permeated very deeply into Western culture - at least with the leading thinkers, if not necessarily the rest of us. Those intellectual movers and shakers had a great impact on our beliefs as a society."
Ronner believes the current wave of interest in angels and the willingness of increasing numbers of people to share their angelic encounters without being labeled as crazy "has something to do with the books about near-death experiences in the '70s. Those `power visions' of the alleged after-life are strangely uniform, despite the varying religious experiences of those involved. I think the interest in angels is running parallel to that interest in near-death experiences."
Eileen Freeman, author of two angel books and editor of the newsletter, "AngelWatch," said the fascination with angels is anchored in a broader social movement. "I think humans go through cycles - materialistic, intellectual - and then become repulsed by their indulgence in them. The decade of the '50s was all very self-centered. We got into the '60s and people were disgusted with that; life without civil rights or any social consciousness. Then in the '70s and '80s, people began going back into the `how much can I get for myself' mind-set. Now I think we long to return to our spiritual roots.
"We're all spiritual beings at heart - our real home is in heaven. Our country has come through a very materialistic period - money, power and prestige. People are coming up for air and they realize they are starving - they begin to seek God and ask those basic questions, `where did I come from, why am I here, where am I going.' "
Ronner believes public acknowledgment of angelic intervention is the result of greater openness to the metaphysical. "Here you have this tremendous reality hidden from the public view for all these years, yet it was there all the time and just kind of kept out of sight. There's so much circumstantial evidence of it now, with all the books and people speaking more freely about it, that it can no longer be ignored.
"It's like this book that I read to my little girls all the time about a dragon that comes into the house. The girl's mother won't acknowledge it, and it grows every time she denies that it exists. Finally, it's grown to the point that it breaks through the roof of the house and destroys it, and the kid just can't stand it - she insists on reality of the dragon. Finally her mother comes around - `well I guess it is a dragon.' "
Ancient accounts of angelic visitation appear in the literature of all major religions. Holy writings of Christianity, Judaism and Islam all chronicle angelic encounters. In a sampling of Old Testament accounts, an angel intervened to spare Issac from being sacrificed by Abraham, to save Shadrach, Meshach and Abedneggo from the fiery furnace, to shut the mouth of the lion so it couldn't devour Daniel.
New Testament chronicles include the annunciation to Mary and Martha, as "guardians" for Christ in the wilderness, an attending angel to strengthen him in the Garden of Gethsemane and an appearance at Christ's tomb following his death.
Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism also include angels in their doctrines and teachings.
In many of the ancient accounts, the angel is a physical protector; in others, emotional or spiritual support and comfort is provided.
Those same purposes are evident in modern angelic encounters, the authors agree.
"The purpose of an angel is to be our spiritual guardian. Most of those experiences are very routine. When you think of all of the times that you were discouraged and had words put into your heart, or were given the grace to hold the trust in God; moments you were praying and gained greater understanding," Freeman said.
Both authors, and their colleagues in angelology, have interviewed and written about the accounts of people from religious and nonreligious backgrounds speaking of a vast array of experiences ranging from rescues and help with physical healing and vehicle repair to the warmth of inner peace and understanding. Joan Wester Anderson, who visited Salt Lake City last summer with her book "Where Angels Walk," just saw her book reach the No. 4 position on Publisher's Weekly's religious best-seller list last week.
Mail order and retail stores devoted exclusively to angel art, jewelry and books are growing in number, as are collectors clubs and religious groups and retreats on the subject. According to Time magazine, Harvard Divinity School now offers a course on angels and Boston College offers two.
Such fuss is usually reserved for "new" topics or technologies, rather than for a subject that has been chronicled in religious literature for thousands of years. Yet this isn't the first time America has been swept by an interest in helpful beings from beyond.
Freeman said that 300 years ago "there was practically hysteria in Boston - people were seeing angels all over the place. Many of the same social conditions existed as do today - disease and famine and plague and war and unrest were evident. Angels were sweeping the city - people were seeing them like crazy. The first book ever written in America on angels was written at that time by the president of Harvard."
Such resemblance to the past doesn't convince Freeman that the pendulum is waiting to swing the other way. Quite the contrary. "I think it's like following a road around a mountain - toward the top - you've actually moved a few steps up toward God. I feel very optimistic about it. This is not the first time that interest in angels has hit the world."
Ronner agrees. "The media are a mirror of society. They're always a reflection of what's happening within the culture. I think one reason the media are turning around in their coverage of the subject is that the soul of the country is changing . . . It's always been a minority of the population that has these kinds of experiences. There has been a vast underground of awareness about them, but not so by the public at large. As that awareness rises, it becomes more acceptable.
"I don't perceive it as a passing fad - it's not the Hoola Hoop," Ronner said. The former agnostic said he still respects the views of skeptics. "I think I have an open mind. I would be willing to become an agnostic again if the evidence shifted the other way, but I don't see that. There's just too much to explain away."
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Additional Information
Author to speak
Author John Ronner will speak Tuesday, June 14, at 7 p.m. at the First Church of Religious Science, 5448 S. 900 East. He will also take calls from the public on KSL-AM radio that morning.