The secular angel in contemporary children's literature: David ...

and, in the final analysis, its sometimes infuriating ability to appear both revolutionary and
reactionary at the same time” (Hobson, 2007, 496). The angels discussed and analysed further
in the thesis project revolutionary rather than reactionary idiosyncrasies, as they refuse to
adhere to the stereotypical notions and ideas that have for centuries defined and limited their
existence. The angels analysed in the thesis defy convention by fundamentally breaking their
bond with an obsolete God, and by choosing to be who they are and where their loyalties lie.
Pullman, Almond and McNish make use of angelic figures, and despite the vast differences in
their appearance, demeanor, characterization and function, it will be argued that they are a
clear indication and proof of how a figure that has been ‘locked’ within a strictly religious
context for so long can reemerge so powerfully and encourage child readers to question
notions of faith.
A subject that is of great significance to all three authors, and which will be explored
in the thesis, is that of the angels’ ‘inclination’ towards good or evil. Although the theologians
of the Middle Ages did not consider the
possibility of morally neutral angels, Dante includes the neutral angels in the
Vestibule of the Inferno, a region reserved for those who are neither good nor
evil in their commitments. In canto III, Dante passes those angels who rejected
both God and Satan and their human counterparts as they wail and endlessly
pursue a whirling standard. His brief glance at them indicates his disdain.
There are creatures who are so directionless as to be unworthy even of
condemnation (Keck, 1998, 26).
This idea of rejecting the neutral and viewing it as something worse than evil is also evident in
the Bible. In Revelation 3:15 Christ speaks to John about the people of Sardis. Jesus exclaims:
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then
19