Dogma

Bartleby and Loki are fallen angels, eternally banished from Heaven to Wisconsin for insubordination, after an inebriated Loki resigned as the Angel of Death at Bartleby’s suggestion. In a newspaper article that arrives anonymously, the angels discover a way home: Cardinal Ignatius Glick is rededicating his church in Red Bank, New Jersey, in the image of the “Buddy Christ.” Anyone who enters the church during the rededication festivities will receive a plenary indulgence, remitting all sins. Were the banished angels to undergo this rite—and then die after transmuting into human form—God would have no choice but to allow them re-entry into Heaven. They are encouraged by the demon Azrael and the Stygian triplets, three teenage hoodlums who serve Azrael in hell.

Bethany Sloane, a despondent abortion clinic counselor, attends a service at her church in McHenry, Illinois. Donations are solicited for a campaign to stop a Red Bank hospital from disconnecting life support on John Doe Jersey, a homeless man who was beaten into a coma by the triplets. Metatron—a seraph, and the voice of God—appears to Bethany in a pillar of fire and explains that if Bartleby and Loki succeed in re-entering Heaven, they will overrule the word of God, disprove the fundamental concept of God’s omnipotence, and nullify all of existence. Bethany, aided by two prophets, must stop the angels and save the universe.