Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Milton's social life
- 2 Milton's Ludlow Masque
- 3 Lycidas
- 4 Poems 1645
- 5 Milton's politics
- 6 Milton's prose
- 7 Milton's sonnets and his contemporaries
- 8 The genres of Paradise Lost
- 9 Language and knowledge in Paradise Lost
- 10 The Fall and Milton's theodicy
- 11 Milton's Satan
- 12 Milton and the sexes
- 13 Milton and the reforming spirit
- 14 How Milton read the Bible
- 15 Reading Samson Agonistes
- 16 Milton's readers
- 17 Milton's place in intellectual history
- 18 Milton's works and life
- Index
10 - The Fall and Milton's theodicy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- 1 Milton's social life
- 2 Milton's Ludlow Masque
- 3 Lycidas
- 4 Poems 1645
- 5 Milton's politics
- 6 Milton's prose
- 7 Milton's sonnets and his contemporaries
- 8 The genres of Paradise Lost
- 9 Language and knowledge in Paradise Lost
- 10 The Fall and Milton's theodicy
- 11 Milton's Satan
- 12 Milton and the sexes
- 13 Milton and the reforming spirit
- 14 How Milton read the Bible
- 15 Reading Samson Agonistes
- 16 Milton's readers
- 17 Milton's place in intellectual history
- 18 Milton's works and life
- Index
Summary
Milton's presentation of his various literary characters can be controversial because so many people still believe in, or worry about, the actual existence of some of his most important ones: Adam, Eve, Satan, Jesus. But Milton's God is especially controversial. For all Milton's 'language of accommodation' (see PL 5.572-4, 6.893, 7.176-9), Milton never presents his God as if he is not really God, the eternal and almighty Being who created the heavens and the earth, who reveals himself in the Bible and in the life and person of Jesus Christ, and to whom all beings owe thanks and worship for his goodness and greatness. Moreover, to believe or not to believe in this God is such a fundamental thing that one cannot realistically join the conversation created by Paradise Lost and expect one's belief or unbelief to go unaddressed. Nevertheless, Milton does not force the issue concerning belief in God's mere existence, for that is something he simply assumes; for him God's existence is a premise much more than a conclusion (see YP 6: 130-2). In spite of the radical polarities of belief about God in Paradise Lost, its humans and devils and angels are united in this: they all believe that he is.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Milton , pp. 144 - 159Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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