John Milton was born on December 9th, 1608 in London, England. He began writing as early as 1629, but did not publish Paradise Lost until 1667. In 1642, he wrote about the corruption found within the church, and in 1649, Milton began his journey in politics. Both his religious and political views influence his description of the Fall with Paradise Lost. John Milton began Paradise Lost with one goal in mind: to “justify the ways of God to men” (Book I, line 26). In terms of the Fall, it is clear that God’s foreknowledge and Adam and Eve’s free-will both play a role in this event. However, in order to reach his goal, Milton must explain to his readers how big of a role God played in the actions of Adam and Eve. Milton’s Paradise Lost depicts …show more content…
John Milton found himself associating, at some point, with both points of view, but, ultimately, wrote Paradise Lost from a primarily Arminianist approach. In order to understand why the Fall occurs the way it does in Milton’s poem, one must understand what Arminianism is. Developed by Jacobus Arminius, this theology focuses on the idea that God does not have an influence over man’s deeds, and that man has a choice on the actions they choose to carry out within their lifetime. This is in direct conflict with the Calvinist idea that “God has destined everybody for their fates – for some people prosperity and for some others adversity from the beginning” (Abtahi 84). As Milton approaches the topic of the Fall, he indicates that he believes it was Adam and Eve’s own choice to fall, and that it was not predestined by God. He also presents a God who allows free-will in order to emphasize this free-will. In Book III, God speaks to His Son, stating “Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell” (III.102). A Calvinist approach would have shown a God who not only foreknew the events that would occur in Eden, but one who predestined them to occur without acknowledgement of Adam and Eve’s actions. In terms of salvation, created after the Fall, “Arminians emphasized that each person can exercise free-will and accept or refuse God’s universal grace” (Dobranski 85). Milton presents to his …show more content…
“Milton… concludes: Predestination and free-will are not contradictory or conflicting. Rather, they are complementary…” (Abtahi 85). Milton acknowledges the unlimited knowledge of God alongside His allowance of free-will, allowing the two to complete one another. He presents a God who is all-knowing and discusses that “past, present, and future He beholds” (III. 78). John Milton has a reason for presenting God this way, and that is to, ultimately, serve his initial purpose of justifying God’s actions. He explains to his readers that, while he allowed Adam and Eve to sin and fall from grace, He saw a future where they could be happy. This future, however, would not be perfect like the future they could have had in the garden of Eden. God saw a future where the Son would make His way to the earth and save Adam and Eve. His unlimited foreknowledge allowed Him to console Adam through Michael in the final books of Paradise Lost. “Ultimately Adam is brought to the realization that he will regain the liberty which was his before the Fall only through the offices of the Son” (MacCallum 87). Many people question why God would allow Adam and Eve to Fall, but Milton makes it clear that God knew that His Son would have the ability to bring back some of what was lost. This demonstrates to his readers that God’s knowledge is not limited by free-will, and the two can, in
...to mankind in Paradise Lost - one of the fundamental concepts in Christianity and vital to Milton's objective to "justify the ways of God to men" (1, 26) - the gods in the Aeneid are continually reminding Aeneas that he cannot afford to be distractive by the temptresses that are women because the future of Rome lays in his hands. Milton's God, on the other hand, allows Eve to fall and her blatant transgression caused the loss of paradise and all of creation has to experience the consequences of original sin. In Paradise Lost Eve was expected to submit to her ultimate authority, Adam. Rather, it is Adam in Book IX who submits to Eve's unreasonable discourse on separation. Indeed, the implication of a man (as a superior being) succumbing to feminine wiles and passion is an intense concept which - for both Virgil and Milton - threatened the very basis of their society.
The seat of faith resides in the will of the individual and not in the leaning to our own reasoning, for reasoning is the freedom of choosing what one accepts as one’s will. In considering the will was created and one cannot accuse the potter or the clay, Milton writes to this reasoning, as “thir own revolt,” whereas the clay of humankind is sufficient and justly pliable for use as a vessel of obedience or disobedience (3.117). The difficulty of this acceptance of obedience or disobedience is inherent in the natural unwillingness in acknowledging that we are at the disposal of another being, even God. One theme of Paradise Lost is humankind’s disobedience to a Creator, a Creator that claims control over its creation. When a single living thing which God has made escapes beyond the Creator’s control this is in essence an eradicating of the Creator God. A Creator who would create a creature who the Creator would or could not control its creation is not a sovereign God. For who would not hold someone responsible for manufacturing something that could not be controlled and consider it immoral to do so? To think that God created a universe that he has somehow abdicated to its own devices is to accredit immorality to the Creator. Since the nucleus of Milton’s epic poem is to “justifie the wayes of God” to his creation, these ‘arguments’ are set in theological Miltonesque terms in his words (1. 26). Milton’s terms and words in Paradise Lost relate the view of God to man and Milton’s view to the reader. Views viewed in theological terms that have blazed many wandering paths through the centuries to knot up imperfect men to explain perfect God.
Milton’s theodicy is shown as a way to explain why if God is all loving, why he lets bad things happen to us. His basic concept is that because Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, many consequences came after. For example children dying of cancer. Many times in our lives things happen that we don’t think are good necessarily, but good things come from bad things. The choices we make have consequences and, but sometimes we are given trial for, what we believe, is no particular reason. This has been the question from the beginning. Milton decided to write this because it is on everyone 's mind, and he wanted to challenge Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. Milton was successful, in that, his book is well known, but The Iliad and The Odyssey are still the basis of human thought. Everyone in their lifetimes wants to accomplish something that will help them to be more successful than they are now. This was Milton’s thought process. Who wouldn’t want to write a book and have it be considered the basis of human thought and maybe even the book people associate with our nation? Most people would, this is why Milton tried and somewhat had a success. The
In Paradise Lost, Milton displays the Christian worldview by integrating truths and values of his faith in place of humanistic values. Key elements such as the nature of the protagonist, the setting in which the epic takes place, and rudiments of the plot convey the fundamental aspects of Christianity. Milton took his worldview and applied it to a worldly genre, revolutionizing the epic
Martin, Jessica. "John Milton, Part 3: Does Paradise Lost Really Attempt to Justify God's Ways?" Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 12 Dec. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Paradise Lost is an epic poem portraying John Milton’s theological standpoints. The theme is knowledge and the fall of man. Milton uses his poem to state some of his theological beliefs and his personal reflections. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in the 17th century but uses influence from classic poets. Milton’s epic is an extremely important piece of literature. The excerpt used in this commentary takes on the subjects of sin and the punishment with regards to the atonement from God’s point of view. Milton’s states many of his own theological opinions but wants the reader to know that God is justified in everything that he does, and also wants them to know that man has free will.
Reichert, John. Milton's Wisdom: Nature and Scripture in Paradise Lost. Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press. 1992
In the opening lines of Paradise Lost, Milton wastes no time conveying to his readers what his purpose in writing the epic is. He writes in the beginning that he intends to “assert Eternal Providence, / and justifie the wayes of God to men” (I. 25-26). What exactly does this mean though? In order to be able to clearly judge and evaluate what these lines imply, it is important that one understands what exactly Milton’s thoughts we regarding “Eternal Providence” and the “wayes of God”. Stemming from this idea, it is important to also realize how the idea of free will intertwines with the omniscience of God. For Milton, God’s omniscient did not constrain the free will of Adam and Eve. However, this idea presents the reader with a paradoxical situation that Milton as an author was fully aware of. Paradise Lost presents the reader with eternal providence and free will as being part and parcel of each other, neither constrains the other, and it is these two aspects, along with that of knowledge that lay the groundwork in understanding Paradise Lost.
... Eve are able to feel penitent and pray for forgiveness” (Nutt 225). Milton is also very concerned with the correct process of how man is saved. “…how, through the divine gift of grace, mankind can seek salvation” (Nutt 66).
Milton. New York: Norton, 1957. Elledge, Scott, ed., pp. 113-117. Paradise Lost: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources.
There have been many different interpretations of John Milton's epic, Paradise Lost. Milton's purpose in writing the epic was to explain the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Although the epic is similar to the Bible story in many ways, Milton's character structure differs from that of the Bible's version. Through-out the epic Milton describes the characters in the way he believes they are. In book II of Paradise Lost, Milton portrays Satan as a rebel who exhibits certain heroic qualities, but who turns out not to be a hero.
Milton, John. ‘Paradise Lost.’ 1674. Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000, 1: 1817-2044.
Paradise Lost is one of the finest examples of the epic tradition in all of literature. In composing this extraordinary work, John Milton was, for the most part, following in the manner of epic poets of past centuries: Barbara Lewalski notes that Paradise Lost is an "epic whose closest structural affinities are to Virgil's Aeneid . . . "; she continues, however, to state that we now recognize as well the influence of epic traditions and the presence of epic features other than Virgilian. Among the poem's Homeric elements are its Iliadic subject, the death and woe resulting from an act of disobedience; the portrayal of Satan as an Archillean hero motivated by a sense of injured merit and also as an Odyssean hero of wiles and craft; the description of Satan's perilous Odyssey to find a new homeland; and the battle scenes in heaven. . . . The poem also incorporates a Hesiodic gigantomachy; numerous Ovidian metamorphoses; an Ariostan Paradise of Fools; [and] Spenserian allegorical figures (Sin and Death) . . . . (3)
In conclusion, Paradise Lost can be seen through a historically contextual lens that allows us to see the parallels between Milton’s life and experiences during the reign of Charles I, and the predominant themes in his epic poem. Many of the themes in Paradise Lost, from the broader situational occurrences to the behavior of individual character’s and their attitudes toward the situations in which they find themselves can be seen as directly influenced by Milton’s time as a Parliamentarian in 17th century England.
John Milton's great epic poem, Paradise Lost, was written between the 1640's and 1665 in England, at a time of rapid change in the western world. Milton, a Puritan, clung to traditional Christian beliefs throughout his epic, but he also combined signs of the changing modern era with ancient epic style to craft a masterpiece. He chose as the subject of his great work the fall of man, from Genesis, which was a very popular story to discuss and retell at the time. His whole life had led up to the completion of this greatest work; he put over twenty years of time and almost as many years of study and travel to build a timeless classic. The success of his poem lies in the fact that he skillfully combined classic epic tradition with strongly held Puritan Christian beliefs.