Sunday Salon – Review of “Angels: A Pop-Up Book” by Chuck Fischer

This gorgeous pop-up book is guaranteed to thrill you even if you don’t have the slightest belief in Seraphim, Cherubim, Principalities, or any of the rest of the nine angelic orders.

According to St. Thomas of Aquinas in Summa Theologica, angels are intellectual creatures of pure spirit, i.e., they are completely incorporeal. Nevertheless, he concedes that from time to time they assume bodies just to perform some specific service for God.

This book highlights the visual representations of these incorporeal beings and tells something of the history of how they came to look the way they do in art and literature.

It is important to understand that, at least according to St. Thomas of Aquinas, an angel is not a dead human; angels are as different from humans as animals are from us. They are endowed with a power and intellect not proper to man. Thus the angels are not humans, and humans can never become angels. So how do we know what they might look like? Why do we depict them with wings, for example? Fischer tackles these questions and more in the surprisingly comprehensive written material.

The book is divided into three sections: Messengers, A Hierarchy of Angels, and Secular Angels. Next to the large central pop-up section on each page, small booklets to either side give explanations for what you are seeing, drawn from cultures and religions around the world.

But you don’t even need to read a thing to enjoy this book. I could sit and turn the pages for hours, just to partake in the pop-up confections. And you definitely don’t need to believe in angels. You just need an appreciation of art, culture, and design, and the magical wonder of elaborate pop-ups.

In the review by Kathy, a.k.a. Bermudaonion, you can see a quick one-minute video with more gorgeous pictures from this book.

Evaluation: If you need a lovely present to give someone for Christmas this year, I don’t think you can go wrong with this book! You might want to protect it from your resident wild things, however, whether human or beast.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to Anna of Hachette Press for providing this gorgeous review copy.