Section IV: The Definition of Angels, § 43
SECTION IV: ON THE DEFINITION OF ANGELS
What an angel is.
§ 43. Athanasius (De comm. essent., p. 392, vol. 1) defines “angel” in this way: “An angel is a living being, rational, nonmaterial, given to singing hymns, immortal.” The definition of Damascenus (Orth. fid., bk. 2, ch. 3) is more complete, and Bonaventure explains it in detail (in Compend., bk. 2, ch. 11): “An angel is an intellectual being, in perpetual motion, free, without body, serving God, having received immortality not by nature but as a gift; only the Creator knows the exact nature and form2 of its being.” (See Elijah of Crete, on Orat. 2 of Nazianzen, p. 28.) However, Nazianzen himself (Orat. de sancto bapt.) describes angels in this way: that they are “a second light, an emanation of the first light, first and pure observers and witnesses of the glory on high.” Dionysius (De div. nom.) posits this definition, which Alexander of Hales explains ([Summa,] part 2, q. 20, memb. 3, art. 2): “An angel is an image of God, the manifestation of a hidden light, a pure reflector, very brilliant, spotless, uncontaminated, undefiled, receiving (if it is right to speak this way) the entire beauty of God’s form and declaring purely in himself, to the extent it is possible, God’s goodness which is in secret.”