Angels in Late Ancient Christianity

Abstract

Ellen Muehlberger explores the diverse and inventive ideas Christians held about angels in late antiquity, focusing especially on the fourth and fifth centuries. At that time, Christians were experimenting with new modes of piety, adopting long-standing forms of public authority to Christian leadership and advancing novel ways of cultivating both body and mind to further the progress of individual Christians. She argues that in practicing these new modes of piety, Christians developed new ways of thinking about angels. The first half of the book is a detailed exploration of the two most popular discourses about angels that developed in late antiquity: in one, developed by Christians cultivating certain kinds of ascetic practices, angels were one type of being among many in a shifting universe, and their primary purpose was to guard and to guide Christians; in the other, voiced by urban Christian leaders contesting with one another, angels were morally stable characters described in the emerging canon of Scripture, available to enable readers to render Scripture coherent with emerging theological positions. In the second half, Muehlberger shows how these two discourses influenced wider Christian culture. In detailed studies of popular biographies written in late antiquity, of the community standards of emerging monastic communities, and of the training programs developed to prepare Christians to participate in ritual, new ideas about angels shaped and directed the formation of those institutions that we think of as defining late antiquity.

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