Radio 4 between 9 and 9:45 there is a discussion chaired by Melvin Bragg. The programme is called 'In Our Time'. This week it was about angels and how their purpose and image changed in relation to changes in the material world. Prior to the Babylonians angels were generally portrayed as ordinary folk set apart only by the message from God they carried. The old Babylonians who captured the early monothiests, i.e. those who believed in a single deity (do keep up at the back there!) had lots of walls and stuff adorned with winged beings. It seems that the early monotheists were mucho impressed with this and so the modern angel, he of the big wings and broad chest was born. To cut a long story short questions of angels (who they were; how they moved from the supernatural to the natural; how long they had been around; if they weren't gods themselves what if fact were they, etc) might also be questions about the real world and how it worked. The material world and its developments threw up issues that required solutions and some of those solutions could be addressed through the discussion of angels. For instance, if angels come from somewhere other than here can that place be knowable too? What appears as a theological question therefore, can also be an enquiry into the very nature of the universe itself. In a world without microscopes or telescopes you're a bit of a clever bugger if you're surmising the existence of a materiality that you can't see with your own eyes. Questions about heaven therefore can also be questions about earth. Phew. And I thought it was all about what you could do on the head of a pin.
The other advantage of this series is the programmes last for approx 45 mins which is just the right time for a day's rowing on my lovely machine. BBC online also means I can listen anytime, ah that technology thing again. Nuff said.
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