Book contents
- Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
- Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Metaphysical Poets
- Part II Imagined Worlds
- Chapter 4 “Architect of Wonders”
- Chapter 5 “His Footstep Trace”
- Chapter 6 The Misunderstood Spider
- Epilogue
- Works Cited
- Index
Chapter 5 - “His Footstep Trace”
The Natural Theology of Paradise Lost
from Part II - Imagined Worlds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2023
- Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
- Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Metaphysical Poets
- Part II Imagined Worlds
- Chapter 4 “Architect of Wonders”
- Chapter 5 “His Footstep Trace”
- Chapter 6 The Misunderstood Spider
- Epilogue
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
This chapter turns from a broader consideration of poetic works on divine and human creation to the most influential biblical epic in English: Milton’s Paradise Lost. Recent work on Milton has shown harmony between the content and form of Paradise Lost and the methods and aims of modern science. However, an underappreciated strand of scientific reform still needs to be integrated into our understanding of Milton’s relationship to science: a marginalization of natural theology. By working against this trend, Milton aligns himself instead with those scientific reformers who promoted natural theology, providing in Paradise Lost a rubric for applying human science to theological understanding while resisting the anthropocentrism and modern notion of reason that undergirded many contemporary prose works of natural theology. In contrast with contemporaries who emphasized the evidence of divine power in nature, Milton insists that love is the divine attribute most visible in creation, even outside of Eden. A natural theology that discerns divine love is more at home in Milton’s poetic world than in the increasingly reductive material reality on which works of physico-theology drew.
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- Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England , pp. 149 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023