What should Christians believe about angels and demons? Who exactly are they, where do they come from, and what do they do?
The answers to those questions don’t come easy, but Dr. Luke Stamps, a professor in the Anderson University College of Christian Studies, recently published a book that offers a thoughtful look at the subject through a biblical lens.
Dr. Stamps’ book, titled The Ultimate Guide to Angels and Demons, was published earlier this year through B&H Publishers and is part of a series of reference works. Dr. Stamps joins a group of Christian writers who have authored Ultimate Guide books that have included The Ultimate Guide to Jesus, The Ultimate Guide to the Bible, and The Ultimate Guide to Apologetics.
“I think we need to have a supernatural worldview and be open to what’s going on in the spiritual realm,” he said, “and to think about it carefully, though biblically, in line with the Christian tradition.”
In his Topics in Theology and History Class, offered every spring at Anderson University, Dr. Stamps teaches a section on angels and demons—something he introduced to his class in 2020.
“It was an area of Christian theology that I had not explored adequately and I thought it would be of interest to the students,” he said. “There’s been a lot of reflection on this aspect of Christian belief through the centuries and I think it sometimes has a muted place in a lot of our theologies.”
The book, according to Dr. Stamps, presents a survey of the doctrine of angels and demons and is written for a lay audience, but it could also be of interest to pastors and students wanting to learn more about the topic. There are also chapters dealing with how Christians think about angels and demons and how they are portrayed in art and popular culture—complete with illustrations.
“The book has a lot of art in it… illustrated color images of angels, the Annunciation, the Cherubim and the Seraphim—lots of beautiful artwork,” he said.
This past December, Dr. Stamps published Repeat the Sounding Joy: A Christmastide Devotional, with devotions for the days after Christmas.
The Ultimate Guide to Angels and Demons is available in hardback and as an eBook through Amazon and other major online booksellers and can also be found at Books-A-Million and other major book retailers.