晚明天主教傳教士來華，歐洲中世紀神學思想與中國宋明理學發生碰撞，其中「天使」與「鬼神」相遇是一重要環節。羅明堅和利瑪竇開始將「天使」與「鬼神」關聯，由此而來出現了對儒家鬼神觀的辨析，以及對理學鬼神觀的誤解與批判。而在龐迪我在《神鬼原始》中以答問的方式基督教「天使」學說之若干要義，批判氣化論和偶像崇拜。高一志《神鬼正紀》則是第一部系統介紹西方「天使」學說的中文著作。在哲學上，不論西方「天使」還是中國「鬼神」，其實都可視為人們對生活世界外在性力量和作用的認識與理解；而在對原始民間信仰的合理化和規範化方面，天主教與儒家又有非常類似的訴求：正是這些共同的基礎，促使早期傳教士們借用「鬼神」傳入「天使」學說。

When Catholic missionaries came to China in the late Ming Dynasty, the European medieval theology and the Chinese philosophy of Neo-Confucianism had a collision, in which the encounter of “angels” and “guishen” was an important link. Michael Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci began to associate “angels” with “guishen”, which led to the analysis on the Confucian guishen, as well as the misunderstanding and criticism of the Neo-Confucianism views of guishen. In his Shengui Yuanshi, Diego de Pantoja answered questions about some essentials of the Christian “angel” theory and criticized the Chinese conception of qi-hua, as well as the idolatries in China. Alfonso Vagnone's Shengui zhengji was the first Chinese work that systematically introduced the western theory of “angels”. Philosophically speaking, both the western “angels” and the Chinese “guishen” can be regarded as people’s cognition and understanding of the external forces and functions in our living world. In the rationalization and standardization of primitive folk beliefs, Catholicism and Confucianism shared very similar aspirations. It was these common foundations that prompted those missionaries to use “guishen” to introduce the theory of angels to China.