Archangel Michael Beyond Orthodoxies

Alexandros Tsakos is Scientific Director of the Manuscripts’ and Rare Books’ Collection at the Special Collections of the University of Bergen Library, Norway.Marie von der Lippe is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway Alf Tore Hommedal is Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural History at the University Museum of Bergen, Norway.

• List of figuresAcknowledgmentsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction1.“The archangel Michael looked just like me”:The iconization of the archangel Michael in twentieth-century Moldova, James A. Kapaló, (University College Cork, Ireland)2. “Latent archangels”: The archangel Michael in Romanian fascism, Roland Clark, (University of Liverpool, UK)3. “Menacing, powerful, and frightful captain of the heavenly host”: The archangel Michael in early modern Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Ovidiu Olar, (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria)4. Can a celestial warrior become a healer? The archangel Michael in the manuscript and oral traditions of Romanian charms, Emanuela Timotin (Institute of Linguistics of the Romanian Academy)5.Letters from Heaven: The archangel Michael as God’s messenger in Western Christianity, Alexandros Tsakos (University of Bergen, Norway)6.“Who is Michael?”: Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Protestant tradition, George D. Chryssides, (York St. John University, UK)7.Playing with the dragon: Michaelmas celebrations in Steiner schools as hybrid rituals in the making, Marie von der Lippe,(University of Bergen, Norway) and Camilla Stabel Jørgensen, (NTNU, Norway)8. “Mr. fix-it archangel”: Michael in American New Age spirituality, Cecilie Endresen (University of Oslo, Norway)Index

This compelling volume expands even further the purview of the seemingly limitless capacities of the archangel Michael. These learned essays uncover unexpected activity and care of Michael: in Steiner schools, for Jehovah’s Witnesses, as archangelic author, fascist leader, and more. Bodiless and ethereal, Michael is revealed in this book to be infinitely present, material, active, restrained only by our imagination.