Which religions believe in angels?

Despite their diversity, many religions show elements in common. Let us discover which religions believe in angels

Angels are perhaps the first spiritual and supernatural beings of whom we become aware. This certainly applies to children born into Christian families, who are encouraged from an early age to direct their prayers to their Guardian Angel, to whom each person is entrusted by God and who remains beside us throughout our lives, as a protector and messenger. Christian iconography also greatly encourages this view, since angels have always recurred in countless works of art and sacred representations. But Christianity is not the only religion that contemplates the presence of heavenly messengers. Which religions believe in angels? We will try to discover this, highlighting the differences and common points, at least among the main monotheistic religions, and above all trying to understand why these beings of light have always fascinated human beings.

Angelic figures and spiritual mediators have been present in almost all the religions of the world since their origins, although with different roles and meanings depending on the cultural and theological context. From ancient Mesopotamia to Egypt, from Greece to Rome, and in animistic religions, these spiritual beings serve as a bridge between the divine and the human, offering protection, guidance and heavenly messages. Exploring these figures through a comparative lens allows us to better understand the common roots and unique differences in global spiritual traditions. The universal presence of such figures bears witness to the human desire to connect with the sacred and to find comfort and guidance in the transcendent.

As early as the Mesopotamian religions of the 2nd millennium BC, there was a concept similar to that of guardian angels: the ilu, a protective spirit that watched over each individual man and woman, protecting them from demons always ready to seize them. The same civilisations attributed the guardianship of the celestial order and of all cosmic forces to winged entities, which had the appearance of gigantic lions, karibous, but also dragons and mythological monsters. Many Assyro-Babylonian deities were accompanied by lesser spirits who acted as messengers and assistants, representing a bridge between the divine and human worlds.

Egyptian mythology was also rich in winged creatures, perhaps largely derived from those aforementioned Sumerian ‘angels’. The Egyptian gods often had mixed human-animal forms, but when the Egyptians needed help, they turned in particular to the Hunmanit, entities connected with the sun and represented as rays of sunlight, just as Christianity would one day depict the Seraphim, angels of the first hierarchy, the closest to God. The Hunmanit protected the sun and, with it, all human beings who lived in its light and warmth.

The evolution of angels in Judaeo-Christian culture reflects the transition from an animistic and polytheistic view to a monotheistic one, with angels assuming increasingly defined roles as intermediaries between God and humanity. Judaeo-Christian culture and religion inherited many aspects of doctrines of different origins, reworking ancient animistic and polytheistic beliefs to adapt them to monotheism. During this delicate transition, the need for divine messengers and intermediaries between man and God never disappeared, until the figure of angels as we know them became established. Angels in the Hebrew Bible are not treated as autonomous entities, but always in relation to broader divine truths. Initially, angels were simply theophanic figures, representations of Yahweh. With the consolidation of monotheism, they acquired distinct features as entities separate from God. Angels entered Jewish religious culture and the Bible as divine intermediaries through the Elohist tradition, in which God is called “Elohim” and communicates with human beings through dreams, symbols and angels, precisely. In the first phase of the consolidation of Judaism as a monotheistic religion, angels appear as messengers and protectors, present in many biblical episodes. After the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the settling of Israel, angels added the function of guides of the people to their role as messengers. The idea of a heavenly kingdom in which angels constitute the armed forces also developed. During the Babylonian Exile, far from Jerusalem, the Jews developed beliefs connected with heavenly mediators and enriched their conception, also drawing from Mesopotamian and Egyptian deities. The early Semites in fact absorbed many beliefs of the Sumerians, which they reworked in their own primitive animistic religion, which saw supernatural and powerful entities governing wind and fire, in some respects precursors of the cherubim and seraphim angels, who were later associated precisely with wind and fire. When the Jewish populations moved to Egypt, they also absorbed the local religious culture, with its many deities endowed with bird wings, and this aspect too went on to enrich the iconography of heavenly messengers.

In the New Testament, angels have a more prominent role than in the Old Testament, and their presence is particularly significant during the crucial moments in Jesus’ life, beginning with the Annunciation by the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. The angels will be close to Jesus after the temptations and even during the Passion. They will announce His Resurrection and accompany Him in His Ascension. Jesus Himself mentions angels in various passages of Scripture, and they will continue to appear in the Acts of the Apostles and other fundamental sacred texts, always subordinate to Jesus, as guides and protectors for human beings in preparation for the Final Judgement.

Why are angels called that?

As regards the etymology of the term angel, the Jews defined angels as מלאך (mal’akh), where -lak meant to send. In fact, at first this term was used not only for heavenly messengers, but also for those in the flesh! In some Jewish sacred texts, angels are called elohim, “God/Gods”, or also bene ‘elohim or bene ‘elim, “sons of God”. From mal’akh came the Greek term ἄγγελος (ággelos), again meaning messenger, but also servant. Angelos was actually used to indicate the messengers of the Greek deities, and in the first Greek translations of Judaeo-Christian sacred texts, “daimon” was instead used for heavenly messengers. Over time, “angel” became the universally used term.

Angels in religions today

But today, which religions believe in angels? Angels are not exclusive to the Christian tradition. Examining modern religions, there is no shortage of similarities between recurring angelic figures found in all religions, even though their meanings may vary depending on the religious context (animistic, dualistic, polytheistic) in which they are found. The history of religions shows us a rich typology of these figures, although a vast in-depth study would be necessary to fully understand their role and importance.

We have already seen the conception of angels in Judaism, which views them as servants and messengers of God, entrusted with bringing divine messages and protecting the Jewish people. The angels best known to Jews are Michael, the warrior angel and protector of Israel, and Gabriel, the divine messenger.

For the Catholic Church, the three archangels mentioned in the Holy Scriptures are very important: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. There are also many Catholic Saints whose lives were influenced by angels.

The apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel
Have you ever visited the Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo? It was built after an apparition of Saint Michael…

Angels in Islam

If in Christianity angels are messengers of God, spiritual beings who serve the Lord and protect and guide believers, intervening in their lives in times of need, Islam also has a rich angelic tradition. In the Qur’an, angels are of fundamental importance, because they are the ones who reconcile the absolute transcendence of God with His manifestation in the world and in human affairs. Every interaction with God takes place through angels, who act as mediators and reflections of divinity. For Muslims there are three main categories of supernatural creatures: Angels, Dijnns (Genies) and Shayatin (Demons).

The angels in Islam (“mala’ika” in Arabic) are creatures of fire and light, and once again we return to the conception of the Christian Seraphim and Cherubim, symbols of perfection and purity, entrusted with governing heaven and earth, animating natural forces, praying to Allah, guarding the Qur’an and guiding humanity. Like the Christian angelic hosts, Islamic angels are also distributed into different hierarchies, seven heavens surrounding the throne of God. In addition to serving Allah and governing nature, in Islam angels protect and guide human beings, as well as acting as intermediaries between them and God. On occasion they also punish sinners.

Angels in Hinduism

In India, the universe is seen as a hierarchy of forces constantly in action, venerated by the faithful. In Vedism, part of primitive Hinduism, there is a belief in a multiplicity of spirits responsible for the functioning of the universe and human life. Their task is to maintain cosmic order, and to do so they are endowed with superhuman powers, such as invisibility, the ability to change form, the ability to read minds, fly, and so on. Some of these spirits also act as guides and protectors of human beings. These divine beings are called Deva, a Sanskrit term indicating that which is divine or celestial, and also one who “emanates light”. The Deva, or Shining Ones, are therefore manifestations of the Supreme Lord Ishavara.

Everything that exists has a Deva that controls it and takes care of it, whether animals, minerals, plants, or even the elements. The specific task of a Deva is its Dharma, that is, the good of the being or object that the Deva must protect. The presence of Deva around every element of creation causes a sort of reverberation, which human beings cannot perceive. In addition to the Deva, Hinduism conceives many other intermediary beings between humans and deities, such as the Adita, the Vasu, the Gandharva (celestial musicians), the Apsaras (nymphs of the clouds and waters), the Yaksha and Yakshi (genies), and many others.

Angels in Buddhism

There are also celestial beings called bodhisattva and deva in Buddhism. The bodhisattvas are enlightened beings, people who, having attained enlightenment, nevertheless renounce Nirvana in order to reincarnate and help other human beings attain enlightenment. The deva, originally celestial deities who lived in a state of happiness, later became guardians and protectors of those who undertake the path towards Enlightenment. Buddhism inherited them from Hinduism.

In Japanese and Chinese Buddhism, there are also the* ten’nin, “celestial creature”, “celestial messenger”, “celestial nymph”, also comparable to angels, especially because they are depicted in Japanese art as beautiful women, wrapped in brightly coloured garments, jewellery and scarves, surrounded by lotus flowers, which symbolise enlightenment, and often playing musical instruments, just like many angels in Western sacred art. They can also fly. These Japanese angels live in Buddhist Paradise, together with the Buddhas and those who have attained Enlightenment and completed the cycles of reincarnation, the Bodhisattvas.