Angel in Annunciation and Synchronicity

Fear grips those who doubt that their existence has meaning, and the prevailing notion that humans are situated on a dot in the middle of a dark, cold universe leaves people shivering in cosmic insignificance. Many would argue that science and technology have separated individuals from God while others would say that people have lost their faith, and some would assert that God is dead. Many simply do not know what to believe. Today’s self-help industry is a testament to the search for meaning in an age of uncertainty and faltering religious structures. The truth is that technology and science now answer many of the questions that used to be left to God. This development has confounded people’s ability to integrate what is known today with what was once thought. The disparity between past and present beliefs may be observed in the concept of the angel. There are many who claim that any lingering belief in angels is merely the residue of imaginary or wishful thinking, and there are others who hold that angels (wings, halos, and harps) literally exist. How is one to reconcile such contradictory beliefs? C. G. Jung’s theory of synchronicity (meaningful coincidence) provides a vehicle for the exploration and possible reconciliation of such questions. Rather than echoing the skeptic who says angels cannot exist or the religious enthusiast who affirms their immanence, one might reframe the entire discussion. Like the biblical concept of annunciation, in which an angel delivers a heavenly message to an earthly individual, synchronicity defines the moment at which the eternal touches the temporal.

Jung's theory of Synchronicity is one of the most fascinating yet illusive aspects of his work. It is essential to a full understanding of what he means by the collective unconscious. In this new work Dr. Montgomery succeeds in bringing annunciation into dialogue with synchronicity. She makes a good case for the idea that the Angel is present in moments of synchronicity, an idea that brings with it an immense legacy of images and stories. I recommend this book. It is both scholarly and accessible and is a significant contribution to Jung's project of inviting a "radical reconsideration of the rational.", In her use of Jung’s concept of synchronicity, Tammy Montgomery convincingly shows the human and divine joined at critical moments by angelic messengers., I welcome a book on contemporary theology of depth and on the old but important field of angelology. Tammy Montgomery's book brings angels back into serious consideration in a way that is neither naive nor dismissive. Her insightful book serves as a window on a dimension of everyday experience that we notice in passing but almost always fail to understand and fully appreciate.

Tammy L. Montgomery is the dean of English at American River College. Prior to this appointment she was professor of philosophy and religion at Folsom Lake College.