As young students, we are often oblivious to what is going on throughout the world. We are more focused on getting ready for upcoming Prom, participating in sports all weekend, hanging time with our friends, and spending a lot of time on social networks. Because we are so caught up in our average teenage lives, most aren’t able to identify the current wars being fought in different countries, civil conflicts, and other issues. At the same time, many of the positive actions that people make go without praise too. This just shows that we are ignorant to both good and bad happenings in the world, and the reasons behind it all. In Paradise Lost, by John Milton, he attempts to present the reasoning behind all the actions on Earth, positive and negative. To fully understand though, you must learn Milton’s theodicy, or the defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. (“Theodicy” Merriam-Webster)
Part One
Milton’s theodicy is his attempt to justify God’s ways to man. Not only does he reference the traditional teachings from the bible, but he elaborates on certain points to better create a story to learn from. Paradise Lost starts out with talking about the disobedience of mankind, causing everything to be corrupt from then on. But before God’s creation of man, the archangel, Lucifer, was the first to disobey. He felt that he should have just as much power as God himself, so he got a group of angels together to try to take over the throne in Heaven. They are unsuccessful and sent to live in Hell, the opposite of Heaven. Lucifer is now called Satan and is the ruler of the fallen world. Satan then wants revenge on God so he and the other fallen angles decide that the best way to get back at God is to corrupt h...
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...a’, which suggests predestination rather than free will. (Morbey) Although they were in the wrong and sinned, humans would not be the creatures we are today.
Works Cited
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Covington, Matt. "Paradise Lost: A Theodicy." Speleo Physics. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. .
Morbey, Josepha Anne. "Milton's Theodicy in Paradise Lost." Web NCF. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. .
The New American Standard Bible. N.p.: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. Print.
"Theodicy." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. .
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. 1674. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993.
Paradise Lost is John Milton’s epic poem about the battle between Satan and God. The poem is quite controversial due to the fact that this was written during the time period that the Catholic Church was facing major corruption. People were already having concerns about God and what was right from the Catholic Church; because of this and many other textual reasons Paradise Lost has a very controversial relationship with Christianity.
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, John. Paradise Lost, Book I. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Third Ed. Smith, Hallot.
John Milton’s Paradise Lost is a great story about the creation of mankind and their ultimate downfall. It heavily depicts Satan’s fall from heaven, along with the other angels that revolted against him. Milton depicts a few phenomena that drastically changed after the fall of man. The single action of Adam and Eve eating the apple caused the what many view as the biggest swing in human history. The one thing that could be most heavily altered is the knowledge of mankind, their surroundings and what makes up the world.
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.
Rumrich, John. “Milton's God and the Matter of Chaos.” PMLA 110.5 (1995): 1035-1046. Web. 10 Dec 2013.
Reichert, John. Milton's Wisdom: Nature and Scripture in Paradise Lost. Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press. 1992
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Vol. A. gen
Paradise Lost by John Milton is a religious blank verse poetic epic. It is broken into 12 books and each of them contributes to the overall story, I have focused upon the first book as my text. The first book introduction contains the themes that are addressed in all the books and they are disobedience, eternal providence and the justification of the ways of God to man. The plot starts when Satan and Beelzebub are talking as they are chained in the lake of fire. Satan gets free and lets loose an innumerable number of demons and rallies them into the construction of Pandemonium in the fires of hell, they quickly build this and begin the first council.
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.
Loewenstein, David A Student Guide: Milton-Paradise Lost, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press, 1993, Second Edition 2004.
The question of whether Satan is the hero or the villain of John Milton’s Paradise Lost has been largely debated by scholars over the centuries. The ones who believe Satan is the villain of the epic, more commonly known as the Anti-Satanists, tend to argue that Satan is too foolish to be considered a hero, as his “hostility to Almighty power” is ultimately a futile endeavour (as God’s power is omnipotent) (Carey, 135). C. W. Lewis, also an anti-Satanist, goes as far as to claim that to “admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking” (Lewis, 203). The ones who claim Satan is the hero of the epic, the Satanists, perceive him as the rebellious angel who rises up and defies God’s monarchy and “the tyranny of Heav’n” (174).They choose to focus on Satan’s “nobler qualities, his loyalty in leadership, fortitude in adversity, unflinching courage and splendid recklessness” (Satan/Promo, 3). While these two positions are both valid, this paper will be focusing on a third position: the individuals who believe that Satan is neither the hero nor the villain of the epic.
Milton. New York: Norton, 1957. Elledge, Scott, ed., pp. 113-117. Paradise Lost: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources.
Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton uses various tools of the epic to convey a traditional and very popular Biblical story. He adds his own touches to make it more of an epic and to set forth new insights into God's ways and the temptations we all face. Through his uses of love, war, heroism, and allusion, Milton crafted an epic; through his references to the Bible and his selection of Christ as the hero, he set forth a beautifully religious Renaissance work. He masterfully combined these two techniques to create a beautiful story capable of withstanding the test of time and touching its readers for centuries.