I wrote my Q&A this week on angels, so I thought I might blog about it as well (apologies, Professor Silliman, if this is repetitive!)
For most of my life, I always thought that angels were these sweet, beautiful, divine beings, and was never taught otherwise. Last semester, I was watching a documentary on angels and demons, that explained that in order to do evil, it would serve demons better to appear as extremely beautiful. Although it wasn't a conscious choice, I always believed demons in their purest forms would be extremely, for lack of better words, ugly. This completely altered my view of demons, the way our book and pamphlet have altered my ideas surrounding angels. When the angel was described in the handout we received this week as doing things such as torturing Muhammad into reciting, I was really taken aback. I thought an angel, from what I've been taught, would not have been capable of such things. I guess it just goes to show that mindlessly accepting what you've been taught isn't always going to reveal the true nature of the world - the way reading about something is never the same as experiencing it firsthand.
Well, angels aren't as namby-pamby as they are usually represented in more modern representations. Take Lucifer for example, who was an angel and ended up becoming Satan. Higher ups in the angel hierarchy have flaming swords (If I remember correctly). Gabriel (assumed) chokes Muhammad until he listens. Now, demons probably would look handsome to have something to due with the concept of seduction, or deception, where they use looks to their own devices. But that's just speculation on my part.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when it comes to angels in the Bible, there is one thing that they always say when first seen by humans "Do not be afraid". Considering that many of them are basically their own light-sources (some just glow, others have been described as having faces made of fire), and tend to show up without warning, that first phrase is probably a good thing.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, while angels and demons might e beautiful and ugly (respectively) in their "true" forms, no matter what they wished to accomplish in the mortal realm, they would disguise themselves, if for no other reason than convenience. Hard to get your job done when everyone is following the shiny winged guy who is walking down Main Street.