Angels on the head of a pin

Posted by Masakim on May 09, 2002

In Reply to: Angels on the head of a pin posted by ESC on May 09, 2002

: (I'm adding a new post for Pamela)

: Does anybody know what the expression
: 'Counting angels dancing on pinheads' means and in what context is it used? It can be said a few different ways, like, Angels on pinheads, angels dancing on the head of a pin etc.

: There's an excellent section on angels in "Sacred Origins of Profound Things: the Stories Behind the Rites and Rituals of the World's Religions" by Charles Panati (Penguin Books, New York, 1996). It has information on different types of angels, etc., but nothing (that I could find quickly) on "angels on the head of a pin." "Angels" by Billy Graham, American evangelist, says that, "Speculation about the nature of angels has been around since long before Queen Victoria's time, and it continues down to the present time." In a later chapter he makes reference to "the old debate about how many angels can dance on the head of pin" but doesn't explain its origin.

Some who are far from atheists, may make themselves merry with that conceit of thousands of spirits dancing at once upon a needle's point.
--Ralph Cudworth, _The True Intellectual System of the Universe_, 1678
[According to _Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary_ , he "Sought in his magmum opus, _The True Intellectual System of the Universe_ , to establish a supreme divine intelligence, to refute determinism, to justify moral ideas, and to establish free will."]

• Angels on the head of a pin R. Berg 05/10/02
  • Angels on the head of a pin masakim 05/10/02