Dictionary of Angels

by Gustav Davidson

Book Overview

Gustav Davidson s classic text, A dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels, is the result of sixteen years of research in Talmudic, gnostic, cabalistic, apocalyptic, patristic, and legendary texts. The classic reference work on angels is beautifully illustrated and its reissue coincides with the resurgence of belief in angels in America. This well researched and exquisitely illustrated dictionary is a wonderful collectable for all those who...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 002907052X
• ISBN13: 9780029070529
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

great condition. great book!

Definitive

Among the plethora of books on angels and angelology, this one stands head and shoulders above the rest. While most of its peers are based on a modicum of research and include familiar angels with a few unfamiliar names thrown in, this book is an exhaustively researched reference work for anyone and everyone interested in the topic. If you're looking to build your library on angelology, this should be the first book you buy.

Excellent dictionary on unusual subject

I don't read very many religious books, but this one caught my eye because of its unusual subject, so I spent a while reading it in a Border's bookstore looking up names I remembered from long ago, and it was interesting to see what the book said about them. Although I didn't know much about the subject, I did remember there were seraphim, arch angels, lesser angels, fallen angels, dark angels, black angels, angels of the winds, angels of the hours, and so on, and this book had every one I looked up. Basically every major, minor, fallen angel, demon, or whatever that you can think of seems to be included, from both eastern and western religions. After a few minutes of that it was obvious to me this was a very well researched, scholarly tome intended for serious students of religion who are looking for something much more technical and thorough than usual. I noticed many of the angels discussed aren't actually in the Bible but come from "non-canonical" works, as they say. It turns out there are a large number of these, not just the ones I knew of from sources such as the Cabala. Also, there are often conflicting descriptions about a particular angel. For example, certain angels, such as Metatron, Michael, Raphael and Uriel have had the same action or qualities attributed to them at one time or another. But at least the entries appear thorough since the author cites these different sources even when they appear conflicting and contradictory. Some of the information is pretty amazing by itself. For example, in the cases of the fallen angels, it's said how many infernal legions they have underneath them in Hell to command. I don't recall their names, since they weren't familiar to me before, but one that I saw had 29 legions, and another had 30. I'd be curious to find out where those facts came from. So as I said, although I'm no expert on the theology or natural theology of angels, this is a very thorough, well-researched, and exactingly detailed job on a specialized subject that will probably be of more interest to the serious amateur or professional student of religion.

An Overload of Information About Angels! It's all in here!

If you ever stopped and wondered about the most minute of details about the angelic hierarchy, or maybe the name of a figure in the bible, or what exactly those angels that are in the 7th heaven are referred to, or who the angel of 11 am on Saturday is....Look NO further.This book has more information than any other book in the field. It simply blows them all away. I wasn't crazy about the cover art, or the title (I had my doubts) but when I got my grubby hands on my copy, I sat and read this compilation for days on end.The author spent 15 years researching, and that much is painfully obvious from the get go. Every inkling of angelic reference is carefully detailed here -- even things I've never HEARD of in my (rather large) collection of books. Davidson has somehow managed to catalog it all into a neat little package.And just when you think the sheer amount of entries in this dictionary is amazing, flip to the back. That's right, the Appendix. That's what makes this book amazing, after all. Not only do you have no less than 3 angelic alphabets, you have detailed listings of all known angels, their positions in Heaven, who was their leader, what hour they guarded over, who fell with Lucifer, and so on and so forth.Shocking amounts of information! If you are going to get ANY book about angels, I implore you to pick up this one before you go any further! You'll thank me later.

The Bible For Studying Angels...

Having spent the last 25 years studying angels, and spirits, I happily recommend this reprinted book, A Dictionary Of Angels. The author, Gustav Davidson, provides information from biblical, kabbalistic, and magical sources, as well as the poetic.You will find thousands of angels listed in this dictionary of angels, and plenty of little known information.I recommend it for the curious, and for the serious student of angels. Many hours of enjoyment will be had.