

Since inhabitants of early modern Europe believed in both angels and demons, the copious literature on demonology is perhaps a symptom of a basic human (or at least, Western) tendency: we are more likely to write about (and to pray about, and to dramatize, and to preach about) what makes us afraid and unsettled than about what gives us comfort. If historiography is generated by documentation, the reams of evidence about the demonic produced around the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century witchcraft craze grossly outweigh the scattered reports of angelic visions and interventions. (Milton's war in heaven is an obvious exception to this.) From a historiographical perspective, angels also seem to be a dead end. If narrative is generated by conflict, and angels embody and seek to ensure spiritual harmony, then they are arguably of less interest to the storyteller.

From a narrative perspective, they seem to have less to offer.

One is tempted to consider angels less intriguing.
