A Service of Angels

A Service of Angels is a religious work by Henry Latham, the nineteenth century English clergyman and writer. There were several writers named Henry Latham active in the nineteenth century, including a Cambridge mathematician and a Church of England clergyman, and this book belongs to the religious work of the clerical Latham, who produced several substantial works of biblical interpretation and devotional writing during the second half of the nineteenth century.

The book is a study of the role of angels in Christian doctrine and practice. The subject was one that attracted considerable attention in nineteenth century Anglican thought, partly under the influence of the Oxford Movement and the broader recovery of catholic theological traditions within the Church of England. Latham approaches the subject with the kind of careful biblical exegesis that the better Victorian Anglican theological writing was capable of, working through the various biblical passages that mention angelic beings and considering how the early and medieval Christian tradition had interpreted them.

The book covers the major angelological topics. There are sections on the creation and nature of angels, on the various ranks and orders of angelic beings as developed in the patristic and medieval tradition, on the role of angels in salvation history, on the relations between angels and human beings, and on the specific functions assigned to angels in worship, in providence, and in the final judgment. The treatment throughout combines scriptural argument with patristic reference and with the kind of practical devotional application that a working clergyman would want to make for his congregation.

Latham’s position is broadly Anglican catholic, sympathetic to the recovery of the older theological traditions that the Oxford Movement had advocated and willing to take seriously the contributions of the patristic and medieval writers in ways that the more strictly Protestant traditions within the Church of England were not always comfortable with. The book reflects the wider Anglican catholic theological literature of the period and would have been used by clergy and devout laity who shared its general orientation.

The book is of interest mainly to readers of nineteenth century Anglican theology and to those interested in the history of Christian angelology. It pairs naturally with the broader Anglican catholic theological literature of the period.