Series: none
Publication Date: December
12, 1995
Source: Purchased
Summary: A book of questions and answers about the
nature of angels and demons. Categories include: Our Fascination with Angels,
How We Know Anything about Angels, The Nature of Angels, and Demons.
Review: Peter Kreeft asks and answers a large
variety of questions (100 of them) about the importance, nature, and powers of
angels, all with his characteristic humor and thoughtfulness. Readers will come away both knowledgeable and
cheered.
The book opens by addressing why its own existence matters at all. Question 1 is: O.K., so I’m browsing through this book and wondering: why should I buy
it? What can you tell me about angels in
one page? And Kreeft gives twelve
concise answers as to why angels matter at all and why they are
fascinating. Readers who were honestly
wondering will find themselves with great answers. Readers who have no doubt as to why they are
reading/buying the book can skip this question, and this whole section, with
ease and delve right into questions about the nature of angels. The book is made to be browsed.
Kreeft’s cover a wide variety of topics. Many are “obvious” questions, ones that need
to be asked. Others, such as Do angels have a special connection with the
sea?, seem random, but they are all questions Kreeft has actually been
asked, often by students in his college courses. Although Kreeft is often funny, for example
joking in answer to the question Are
there ever angels in the outfield? that only Red Sox demons would influence
baseball games, he still eventually takes every question seriously and offers
great insight, based on Catholic teaching and his own reading. He often quotes C. S. Lewis and Tolkien.
This is definitely on my to-read list. I've really, really liked the other books by Kreeft I've read. Is this more of a speculative book, or more just answering with what we know for sure as Catholics? (Either would be interesting to me if it was written by Kreeft; I'm just curious.)
ReplyDeleteI've skimmed through the book (a benefit to the Q&A format) and it's basically answering what we know as Catholics. Kreeft will usually at least vaguely reference his sources (the Bible, papal documents, etc.) so even if the answer seems like a best guess sort of deal, you can try to follow it up.
DeletePetra is right. Generally speaking, it's what we know as Catholics or what Catholics have speculated, but Kreeft always specifies which one. For instance, he talks about what medieval theologians thought about angels. A couple things are more his own speculations, and this is because of the nature of the book. It's basically a compilation of questions he has actually been asked about angels--so there may be a couple strange questions that official Catholic teaching has simply never addressed. But in these cases he's also clear that he's presenting his thoughts, or other authors' or theologians' thoughts, as a possible answer.
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