The Image and Role of the Angel in the Popular Literature at the Beginning of Twenty-First Century. The Theological and Critical Perspective

Karolina Kleczko

Abstract

This article is devoted to the theme of an angel and a demon and above all their image and the role in the light of popular literature at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The main problem in this type of stories is mixing nature and the role of angels and demons, good and evil, God and human. Spiritual beings illustrated in the pages of popular literature usually oscillate between humanizing their image and their identification with God. Anthropomorphization angelic and demonic beings were mainly aimed at introducing them to the purely human world, where they could exist with humans and sometimes even as humans. Deification of these spirits had to distance the existence of the human dimension of life, thus showing undeniable superiority of an angel (and sometimes even demon) above the man. The type of existence angels and demons has been modified especially in the sphere of the spiritual dimension of their nature, which in the popular books usually assumed some kind of physical aspect. Also facet of eternal life is subjected to relativization. It is rather presented by kind of existence longer than normally life than immortality in the strict sense. One of the most intriguing aspects was pulling away the angelic beings from their mission. Modification of their role to the ordinary existence and possible use in world their own extraordinary “power” actually leads to the loss of the meaning of existence of beings that were meant to help God. The article has shown only a small part of the issue. The conclusions of the performed analysis leads to the conclusion that the twenty-first century popular literature dealing with the subject of the supernatural world of spiritual beings does not avoid adulteration. Used fiction that tries to speak in some way the voice of truth nevertheless retains chimeric elements that allow the reader to distinguish the literary inventions of the surrounding reality. However, after this general analysis can not be demonstrated that there is definitely no danger of this type of publication.