Eliot Weinberger
Angels & Saints
With a guide to the illustrations by Mary Wellesley
Hardcover
160 pages

Angels have soared through Western culture from Biblical to contemporary times. But what do we really know about these celestial beings? Where do they come from, what are they made of, how do they communicate and perceive? Celebrated essayist Eliot Weinberger has mined, deconstructed, resurrected and distilled, centuries of theology and divine thought into an awe-inspiring exploration of the heavenly host.

From a litany of angelic voices, Weinberger’s lyrical mediation turns to the earthly counterparts, the saints, their lives retold in a series of vibrant and surprising capsule biographies, followed by a glimpse of the afterlife.

Threaded throughout Angels & Saints are the glorious grid texts of the ninth-century Benedictine monk Hrabanus Maurus. The context and thinking behind these astonishingly complex works is explained in detail in an afterword by the medieval scholar and historian Mary Wellesley.

Hrabanus Maurus (c. 780-856 CE) In honorem santae crucis
from Angels & Saints by Eliot Weinberger
(Christine Burgin/New Directions)