E-mail David Christopher Lane
directly at dlane@weber.ucsd.edu
Author: David Christopher Lane Reviewer: FATE magazine Publication date: mid-1980s
E-mail David Christopher Lane
directly at dlane@weber.ucsd.edu
I
want to go back to the home base now.
Fate Magazine Book Review
Do You Have a Guardian Angel?
Do You Have a Guardian Angel? by John Ronner, Mamre Press, Inc., 315 Riverside Press, Indialantic, Fla. 32903, 1985, 186 pages, $10.95, paperback.
One of the more reassuring stories taught to children in Western culture is that each of us has a guardian angel who will look after him. But the dilemma for both a young child and a mature theologian is the definition of a guardian angel. Is it a spiritual being? A disembodied human soul? A special creation? And if there really are angels, can they influence us in our daily lives?
In Do You Have a Guardian Angel? John Ronner attempts to answer such questions. Indeed, Ronner's book consists of over 80 different questions on the nature and history of angels, among them: "Where do angels live?" "Do Angels have beards?" "What are Fallen Angels?" and "What do Angels eat?" Unfortunately, Ronner does not deal with the subject in a systematic and scholarly way; instead he jumps from subject to subject with no apparent logical scheme. In his answers, moreover, he draws on wildly varying sources, from the Bible on one hand and John Lily, Carl Jung and Raymond Moody on the other. Thus the reader encounters a confusing assortment of conflicting responses, none of which illuminates the issue of angels and their alleged existence.
This is not to say that the book is without redeeming qualities. If the reader can overlook the author's potpourri method, he will find the book lively, filled with all sorts of interesting trivia. For example, "How many angels can dance on the point of a pin?" Well, if we accept Thomas Aquinas' definition of angels as 100-percent pure spirits, the answer is that "every angel in God's cosmos could dance on the tiniest smidgeon of a pinpoint and all of its space would be left over." Naturally, this answer necessitates another pivotal question which Ronner also poses, "Do angels get physical?" (Answer: sometimes.)
The best way to approach Ronner's Do You Have a Guardian
Angel? is not too seriously. In this way the reader avoids
being disappointed when it becomes evident that Ronner's questions
and answers on angels are as etheric and unsubstantiated as his
object of study. If the book is read instead as a trivia exercise
on angel folklore, it can serve as an enjoyable reference work,
suited for coffee-table discussions and arguments.
--David Christopher Lane
E-mail The Neural Surfer directly
at dlane@weber.ucsd.edu
I want to go back to the home base now.
