Customer Reviews

Angels : An Endangered Species

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is hardly a book based on atheism. Rather, it takes into account historical documents and broad usage from different religions and how they viewed angels. This book is for someone who is interested in different backgrounds of the origin of angels. It takes cultural historic accounts into context, and leaves the restrictions of the holy bible behind. This book is definitely not for close minded Christians.

Malcolm Godwin is our guide to identifying and explaining the existence of angels to us curious mortals. The book contains two parts: the first reviewing the myths and legends of the celestial spirits, the second speculating on the origins of these mysterious entities and their absence in contemporary faith (hence the subtitle "An Endangered Species"). I love this book for the "Treasure of Angelic Lore" which provides an interesting perspective of both heaven and hell and covers the more notable names of the celestial hierarchy. I recommend this book to anyone studying the subject of angels.

Received in a very timely manner in excellent condition. Very pleased with the service even more than what I or my husband who it was for had expected. Thank you very much!

Like a few other reviewers, this book caught my eye on a library shelf. I have done quite a bit of research on angels (from a Christian perspective), and a quick perusal of the book led me to check it out to learn more from the author's obvious use of other sources. However, once I sat down to read it, I was immediately repulsed by the blatant bias against Christianity and Judaism. The author could have written a very interesting book from an objective viewpoint and presented the various angel traditions, letting the readers draw their own conclusions. However, his bias screams out from every page. For instance, every time he talks about a Hebrew tradition of angels, he gives a reason as to why that tradition was taken from the pagans they lived amongst. Not once does he allow for the possibility that the pagan traditions were assimilated from Hebrew angel art and lore!

Another example of his bias: He discussed the nine choirs of angels, citing that the primary sources are Dionysius and Thomas Aquinas. He then describes the nine choirs, using *only* Dionysius as his source. Thomas Aquinas is never quoted.

One other preposterous claim, not mentioned so far, is that the Angel Gabriel might have used ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION to impregnate the Blessed Mother! I opened my Bible to the quote he uses to justify this ridiculous claim, and it was immediately obvious that he took the line completely out of context. One only has to read another paragraph or two to realize that the claim is indeed absurd.

He describes the book of Exodus as horrible and violent, yet he extols pagan and New Age literature.

If anyone else is drawn to this book on a library or bookstore shelf, perhaps you have been prodded by an angel, but be aware that there are angels who are good and angels that are evil.

This book is absolutely gorgeous and has been incredibly helpful in my personal research. It deals with sensitive subjects without bias, but not without humor. I find myself using only the first half of the book, the sections about Archangels, the Nephilim, and the like, but the second half looks to be very interesting and just as well written. This and _A Dictionary of Angels_ by Gustav Davidson are the two books you simply MUST have if you are interested in angels.

I randomly pick up books in my library, just to enhance my knowledge base. This book turned out to be quite a gem. The collection of photographs of paintings is priceless and the detailed description of angels, actually, according to me, is very interesting. Having read a few dozen pages, I was convinced to order this book.

The Angel book caught my eye on a library shelf. After I checked it out 3 times, I decided it was time to buy my own copy. Thankfully, I found booksellers here with copies because it is out of print.

With all the writings on angels from all the world's religions it is a large topic but Godwin explains and demonstrates the angelic hierarchy and histories extremely well. The book covers angels from heaven and hell, the hierarchy, modern angel encounters -- old and new -- name it and it's there.

If you enjoy mythology or comparative religion then you probably will treasure this book as I do. The writing is punctuated throughout with a beautiful collection of angelic art, diagrams and illustrations. ENJOY!

I used this book as a recourse for an adult discussion group and found it helpful in many ways. The illustrations and graphics were excellent. The writing was informative and even humerous at times. There were some points, however, that were confusing. For one thing, the author combines about 8,000 years of myth from variouis cultures in a rather short volume. This daunting task would be difficult to tackle in many volumes. Therefore, organization is a challenge. While developed topically, each subject (angel or demon) may have been addressed differently from culture to culture and century to century. Sometimes this data was thrown together without enough editing or explanation. Therefore, the reader is left with conflicting reports and opposing information. The author warns about this phenomenon which can hardly be helped without going through exhaustive research. Our group did learn some valuable lessons: 1. We were able to connect various terms and names we had heard previously to a schema. 2. We learned that many cultures developed the same concepts of heavenly beings, shared them, and even referred to them by similar names. 3. That the material that found its way into the canon of the Bible is only a fraction of the writings available. 4. Knowledge of those other materials is helpful in identifying the orientation of the Biblical authors. 5. Sometimes man manipulates divine subjects to control others. 6. The traditions continue to evolve as each group incorporates their own information and enriches the fund of information available. I recommend this book, realizing that it is a "tip of the iceberg" experience.

Malcom Godwin demonstrates his knowledge with angelic lore in this insightful, depthful book.

I first picked up this bit of awesome and win when I was just ten years old and obsessed with angels. Fourteen years later, I recommend it to the entirty of my community, and I never have enough copies on my shelf, I end up giving them all away!

From the stunning artwork contained within it to the down and detailed explanations of various angels, choirs, and their functions, Malcom Godwin has proven his own talent in putting together a volume containing just about every bit of practical information any angelic scholar would want to know. Malcom covers everything from Enoch to Zoroaster and even new-age movements and cult depictions of angels. From the light to the dark, nothing gets lost in this book.

I've seen negative reveiws of this work, but I think its because people open it expecting an angel dictionary, with a list of names and functions. This is not that type of book. Rather it reads like a college textbook on the subject, and covers many paradigms and cultural ideals of heaven's messengers. Malcom leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the topic at hand, and although it's a little old and therefore outdated, this volume never fails in it's accuracy and thoroughness. Five stars. Great job, Malcom.

Godwin's book is, among other things, a collection of fine art depictions of angels through history. That may be reason enough to own it. But if you have any previous knowledge of Judeo-Christian history you may find the text unbearable. He begins by throwing together every tradition and account, Pagan and otherwise, over a period of several thousand years and then calls the result self-contradictory because of the inevitable disagreements. Without disclosing his methods he alters historical documents to his own taste (apparently expecting his audience to be ignorant of them), and he subjects all of it to analysis by the standards of 20th century materialist psychology. There is so much false information and confusion in a single paragraph one could write a whole chapter refuting each one. For example, he calls the God of the Bible "radical evil" and, tossing out the collective conclusions of the whole of Western Civilization, asserts that any intelligent reader would agree with him. Buy it if you must, ... You'll thank me.