In at least three different movies and one book, I’ve come across the plot device that angels envy humans for the unique position the latter have vis-a-vis God’s grace.
I also remember some kind of similar dialogue in Anne Rice’s book Memnoch the Devil.
I also notice that all four of these sources strike me as rather Catholic-oriented.
So where does this movie/book convention come from? Is there some scripture or church tradition that indicates that angels envy humans? Mods feel free to move the thread as appropriate: I had a hard time deciding between GD, GQ and Cafe Society.
Older than Milton, perhaps. In college my drama club once did a cycle of Medieval mystery plays – one was the story of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Satan expounded that his reason for rebelling against God was that God had decided to make humans, not angels, in His image – “And I disdained that angel-kind it should not be! And we were fair and bright! Therefore I thought the form of us take He might!”
I suspect this is because ignorant (Protestant) writers tend to lump popular theology in with the mysteries and rituals religious practice. The irony is that Catholic theology is pretty much the complete antithesis of this angelic nonsense.
In Catholicism, our sum total knowledge of angels and demons amounts to this: we believe they exist, that they are the same type of being (and fundamentally different from humans). Demons, for some reason* are in rebellion against God and, for now, can mess with us. Angels still serve God and bring messages and so forth. Angels are pretty scary to us in their natural form, simply because they are just that rockin’ awesome, but they have taken mortal guise on occaision. That’s about it.
*And we really don’t know why. Fictional sources have all kinds of reasons given, but we have no frickin clue. No one bothered to explain it, and it’s probably pretty damn petty come down to it.
The angels in Wings of Desire and City of Angels (loosely based upon but very different from Wings of Desire) are also envious of humans for their emotional lives and the pleasures of the flesh (not just sex, either).
Don’t know the basis for this meme, other than it makes us as humans feel good to know that even a being as powerful, beautiful and close to God as an angel can be envious of us.
Really? I thought Anne Rice and Kevin Smith were both Catholics.
Yay, I get to quote a Bible verse at you! Isaiah 14:12:
Also,
Now that you mention it, I remember C.S. Lewis had Screwtape ranting against humans for much the same reasons as given in the OP, though that presumably reflected the view of the fallen angels only.
Smith is. Rice recently converted, and was not previously a believer (she may have been raised Catholic, I dunno.) But I’m familiar with European works as well, like Wim Wenders’s films.
Rice was immersed in Catholicism as a child. rejected it as she grew & has now returned. Only her sympathy for gay rights (is her son Christopher gay?) and her social-justice liberalism keeps her from going hard-edged Catholic.
12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
The only Biblical passage I know indicating that humans have something angels lack- the experience of the Gospel.
Philip Pullman, in His Dark Materials also depicts angels as envious of humans, in large part due to their having substance, i.e. bodies of flesh and blood and bone.
This. What we’re seeing is fiction written by humans to feel better about being human.[In reality, we angels just call you–well, it would translate as “homunculi.” We also tell jokes about you much like you tell jokes about natives of neighboring nations.]
:PThere’s a long tradition & strong tendency for human writers expecting an entirely human audience to extol the wonderfulness of humanity. It’s even taught in schools.
Exactly. In science fiction, there’s a common theme of AI computers or powerful aliens envying humans. In fantasy, it’s the elder races like the elves who are jealous of some human quality.
Ding ding ding. Humans experience things like aging, pain and death and angels presumably wouldn’t, so from a literary standpoint, angels have to lack something humans have for that morale reason, and to make them more interesting characters.
The irony is that in (almost by definition) the greatest fantasy work of all time Lord of the Rings, the elves mostly don’t envy humanity. After some eons of seeing their works fade and die, some of them wish they could leave the world through death, but the majority don’t think too much of humans. And the Maiar and Valar would probably laugh at the idea of envying humans. Likewise, the greatest Sci-Fi stories mostly have the advanced superbeings specifically not “envying humanity.”
I do not think is true. Death is called the gift of men. The Silmarillions whole theme is immortality versus mortality (or at least that is the way I perceived it), and the Elves in some ways do seem to envy it.
