01 — The Invisible Creation

The dogmatic foundation: the angels are creatures, made by God, confessed in the Creed under “all things visible and invisible.” This section sets out what the Church holds — that the angels were created (and the patristic discussion of when), that they are “bodiless” only relative to us and not absolutely, that their number and knowledge are great but finite, and that they are a distinct order of creation and not the souls of departed human beings.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Files

• creatures-of-the-invisible-world.md — Angels as created spirits; the “visible and invisible” of the Creed; the patristic discussion of when the angels were made; and the boundary that they are not deified or departed humans.
• the-bodiless-nature.md — What the angels are: bodiless relative to us and material relative to God alone (John of Damascus); their number, knowledge, place, and mutability.

See Also

• 02 — The Nine Ranks — how the one angelic creation is ordered
• The Holy Trinity — the Creator whom the angels serve
• St. John of Damascus — the classic dogmatic source on the angels