Kind of Christmas-y

Evolution of Angels: From Disembodied Minds to Winged Guardians

I see National Geographic had a story about angels for this Christmas, but it's a pretty quick overview that concentrates on Christian ideas of angels. This part reminded me of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters:

Of course not all angels are angelic, according to some Christian traditions. Satan himself, it's been said, was once an angel named Lucifer.

The fact that angels can fall from grace is an important point, Catholic University's Root said—it implies that they have free will.

"You even had some theologians in the medieval and the early modern periods who thought that there was an adversarial angel, a fallen angel, assigned to each person as well as a guardian angel—though this was never an official thought," Root said.

The next part is also a bit novel to me:

As early as the second and third centuries, Christian scholars such as Origen of Alexandria saw important roles for fallen angels, Notre Dame's Cavadini said.

"For Origen and a lot of church fathers, angels participated in the governance of the universe at God's will," Cavadini said.

"That also meant that the fallen angels were intended to participate in the betterment of the universe, and that you have to take them very seriously, because they still did participate—but in a negative way."

Jewish ideas of angels don't get a mention, but I see Wikipedia gives a brief outline.