The Angel of Modernity. The Figure of Angel in Contemporary Thought

Abstract

This essay compares two perspectives about the angel in contemporary thought, this is, one from Henry Corbin´s works and the other from Walter Benjamin´s. Both philosophical projects try to develop a radical critique of modernity using the angel´s figure, but there is also an important difference between them: for Corbin it is very important to develop a phenomenology of the angelical consciousness that reestablishes the balance in the whole structure of monotheism; for Benjamin on the other hand, the angel is the allegorical function of antonomasia that may open the door for the messiah, which is, for the deconstruction of any possible angelology.