Paradise Lost and religion
John Milton, the man
John Milton was born in 1608, and died in 1674. His parents, John Milton and Sara Jeffrey : puritans, a theological system inspired by Calvinism.
One of the turning points of English society’s religious tensions was the 1605 Gunpowder Plot failure premeditated by Guy Fawkes, a catholic, against King James I, a fervent protestant who wanted to remain at peace with Catholics, because of his strong alliance with catholic Spain. Unfortunately for him, the Thirty Years’ War wrecked a large part of Central Europe, and persecutions on both sides continued.
John Milton started writing at the age of 10, first at Saint Paul’s School, where he translated Psalm 114 from the original Hebrew. This translation into English was a poetic paraphrase in heroic couplets (rhymed iambic pentameters). he continued it into adulthood, especially from 1648 to 1653, a period when he was also composing pamphlets against the Church of England and the monarchy.
He then went to Cambridge and wrote the poem “In Quintum Novembris” (“On the Fifth of November”), in 1626. The poem celebrates the anniversary of the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes tried to kill King James I and his family would participate.
He was a good student, and kept on reading and writing poems during his college years. He also developed his capacities in linguistics by learning several languages, such as Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Deutsch, among others.
Milton always saw himself as a priest, but his Puritan inclinations became more radical as he matured, and caused him to dislike the hierarchy of the established church.
He started deviating from this idea to progressively turn to the art of poetry. He even went on a six-year trip to Hammersmith to study books and learn how to write. During that time, he learned about philosophy, history, politics, and theology.
He wrote his own religious doctrine, De Doctrina Christiana (in English “on Christian Doctrine”), a theological treatise exposing his religious views. The question of authorship on this text was asked by historians for over 100 years, after the discovery in 1823 of the original text, since the doctrine contradicts the views Milton exposes in his major works Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. However, experts agreed that this doctrine was Milton’s.
Milton was accused of being part of the Satanist cult, mostly because of the importance he gives to Satan, and the radicality of his religious thoughts.
Actually, he shared strong beliefs with puritans: he disliked kings and bishops but believed in republicanism, and also advocated for divorce and freedom of press.
He was also an anti-royalist, he tried to criticise king Charles I and king Charles II in his poem Paradise Lost, through the tyrannic, ruthless figure of authority that is God. This aversion for royalty had a consequence on his literary legacy, since the copies of his poems and pamphlets were all burnt.
Among the people that inspired him throughout his life, Galileo, whom he met once in Italy, is probably the most famous, since his condemnation strengthened Milton’s choice to remain on the puritan side, a synonym for liberty of thoughts. This certainly explains why Galileo’s name is mentioned in Paradise Lost, in Book V.
The artist
Milton was long seen as a heretic, because of his radical views on subjects like divorce, religion, education or politics, but the accomplishment of such wonderful work as Paradise Lost offered him the praise of his peers.
His stature as an epic poet was instantly proved, considered one of the greatest English poets.
He was and still is compared to William Shakespeare, who was himself considered the greatest poet in the 16th century. the immediate response to the poem was a series of controversies, but most critiques consolidated the position of pioneer of Paradise Lost as an English epic poem.
Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope and others emphasized the place of Paradise Lost in the history of poetry, by stating that Milton was the first one to write interesting poetry – Pope wrote the Dunciad, a satire against dull poets, including Richard Bentley, a theologian specialised in modern writings (Pope here confirmed what Milton said about the importance to bring back ancient works into the education and course of poetry).
The influence of Milton’s work went on throughout the 19th century, when romantic artists such as William Blake or Percy Bysshe Shelley got inspired by his epic to create series of paintings and criticism revolving around the character of Satan.
The work
Milton’s speaker begins Paradise Lost by stating that his subject will be Adam and Eve’s disobedience and fall from grace (“Of Man’s First Disobedience Sing Heavenly Muse”). The action begins with Satan and his fellow rebel angels who are found chained to a lake of fire in Hell. Beezelbub suggests that they attempt to corrupt God’s beloved new creation, humankind. Satan agrees, and volunteers to go himself.
In Heaven, God tells the angels of Satan’s intentions, and the Son volunteers himself to make the sacrifice for humankind. He disguises himself as a cherub to get past the Archangel Uriel. The other angels agree to search the Garden for intruders.
After seeing Satan insufflate a dream to Eve, God, about his creation, sends Raphael down to Earth to teach Adam and Eve of the dangers they face with Satan.
Raphael promptly warns Adam about his seemingly unquenchable search for knowledge. Raphael tells Adam that he will learn all he needs to know, and that any other knowledge is not meant for humans to comprehend. Raphael reminds Adam that he must love Eve more purely and spiritually. At that time, Satan has been banished by Gabriel.
Satan returns to Paradise. He chooses to take the form of a serpent. In the form of a serpent, he talks to Eve and compliments her on her beauty and godliness. She reaches for a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and eats. Knowing that she has fallen, Adam decides that he would rather be fallen with her than remain pure and lose her. So he eats from the fruit as well.
God immediately knows of their disobedience. The Son tells Adam and Eve that they must now suffer pain and death. Eve and all women must suffer the pain of childbirth and must submit to their husbands, and Adam and all men must hunt and grow their own food on a depleted Earth.
Critical assessment
Paradise Lost remains one of the most famous English works, and is still at the heart of academic researches. The genius required to write such poem still fascinates scholars nowadays.
But most importantly, Milton took part in a century of tensions between several religious views and ideologies that led to destructive wars.
and while he was on the wrong side of society for his contemporaries, he wrote tracts to explain his views:
- The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, in 1643: implicitly tried to justify his will to divorce a fleeing wife called Mary Powell by saying that the only justification needed to divorce your loved one must be incompatibility, not religion.
- freedom of speech and of press :1644 “Of Education”, a prose doctrine in which he explained that education should rely on the example of Classical Antiquity, but not only in terms of languages. Indeed, we should be inspired by the literary (hence his admiration for Epic poems), philosophical and political statements of the period.
- Areopagitica, 1644, which opposes governmental licensing of publications or procedures of censorship. Milton claims that governments insisting on the expression of uniform beliefs are tyrannical. In his tract, he investigates historical examples of censorship, which according to him emanate from repressive governments.
The philosophy
Milton was considered a Puritan, truly believed in Calvinism and most of its precepts, which he exposed throughout the English Civil war.
His inclination for controversies gave him the opportunity – which he took – to become the Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell. Yet, Milton wrote Paradise Lost in a way that made his contemporaries believe he was not a pure Calvinist.
Indeed, Milton’s religious views as expressed in his doctrine have been proved to share similarities with a theological movement that tends to contradict Calvinism : Arminianism.
Our issue at stake for this presentation is then : to what extent does Paradise Lost’s subject, that is to say, the justification of “the ways of God to men” rely on Arminian theology, and how does it contradict Milton’s Calvinist convictions ?
What are arminianism and Calvinism ? They are both reforms of christianity that appeared during the 16th and 17th centuries, and which try to explain the relationship between god’s sovereignty and Man’s responsibility for his actions.
John Calvin, a theologian, developed Calvinism, a theological system that tends to reform the Christian church and its practices.
Arminianism was a direct response to Calvinism that appeared in the 17th century. The conflict appeared when Arminianism doubted the calvinist concept of predestination.
Jacob Arminus and his followers believed in the alliance of God’s power and Man’s freedom, at a time when Calvinist predestination thought that every human being’s fate was determined before their birth, actually at the origin of the world, when god chose a path for each living creature.
o Calvinism defends the absence of free will in the sense that man is obligatorily drawn to sin,
o arminianism encourages each person to reflect on their actions and to consider
that they are the only one responsible for their actions – whether good or bad – and that they should go back to god as soon as they realise the nature of their action – the responsibility of man in sin must be preserved.
Milton’s work relies on Arminianism here, since Milton draws the attention on his human characters, Adam and Eve. Indeed, the two are in the Garden of Eden when Satan arrives in Eden. We must however consider that the understanding of Paradise Lost as a work relying on Arminianism must be nuanced with the consideration of Calvinist precepts.
While Calvinism emphasizes the power of god, Arminianism focuses on Man, and Milton gives the importance to Adam, Eve and Satan’s free will rather than to God’s omniscient, overlooking eye.
When Milton imagined his Satan as a fallen angel right from the beginning of his poem, he agreed with Arminian views, because he believed that Satan was responsible for his disobedience, hence he contradicted the idea of predeterminism, or predestination, a concept defended by Calvinism.
Milton even strengthens his point of view when he exposes an interaction between Satan and Beelzebub in which Satan asserts that Evil is not over :
What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else to be overcome?
Book I
In this passage, Satan exposes his will to go further into his sin. Milton emphasizes the fact that Satan has ambitious plans for the future, hence that he thought about his plan a long time ago. The characteristic of Satan corroborate the previous statement : satan is a bold, ambitious, convinced Devil who tries to elevate himself to the rank of God. In this respect, the poem reveals Satan’s true nature : he is brave only thanks to his aversion for god, Or god is the motor of his strength.
The conclusion of this point is summed up in Satan’s speech to his fellow fallen angels, when he claims that it is “better to reign in hell than serve in Heav’n” (I, 262). He embarked on this mission to destroy God’s best creature all by himself.
We are now going to focus on book III, since this is where God foresees – an important term – the fall of Mankind. Indeed, God did not predict, or force man’s fall, there was not action made on the part of god.
Here, Milton is faithful to the Arminian doctrine, since he tends to explain that foreknowledge and predestination are not the same concept. Indeed, as I said earlier, God is just an overlooking eye that watches over the universe that Milton depicts in his poem.
They therefore as to right belong'd,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Thir maker, or thir making, or thir Fate;
As if Predestination over-rul'd
Thir will, dispos'd by absolute Decree
Or high foreknowledge; they themselves decreed
Thir own revolt, not I; if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault.
(III, 111-119)
By doing so, Milton directly attacks Calvinism’s precept of absolute predestination, hence the influence of God’s will on Man’s actions.
Milton says that god created man as a free creature :
I formed them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves: I else must change
Thir nature, and revoke the high Decree
Unchangeable, Eternal, which ordain'd
Thir freedom: they themselves ordain'd their fall
(III, 123-128)
Man’s freedom sets Milton in the Arminian theology : he suggests that Man is not forced to fall, but that he is drawn to sin through what god gave him, that is to say free will.
Next, let us study the concept of depravity : main subject of conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism. Indeed, on the one hand,
- Calvinism considers that man’s nature was corrupted and doomed when Adam fell, and therefore, can no longer access peace and Heaven – at least on his own. God, according to Calvinism, is the only one that can make man come back to him.
- Arminians, on the other hand, believe that Man has the ability to decide whether to remain on God’s side or to sink in depravity. Hence, Man that is aware of his depravity can decide to come back to god on his own, without god’s intervention in the process.
Calvinism revolves around the decision of God, while Arminianism provides mankind a possibility to decide on their fate.
In Book III, Milton wrote two lines that could be interpreted in 2 different ways. But thanks to the context he gives us in the text, we understand his Arminian inclination. Indeed, in the quote:
So will fall
Hee and his faithless Progeny
(III, 95-96)
Milton refers to Adam’s fall and the consequences of his action on mankind, Adam and Eve’s descendants. Calvinism claims that Man was doomed by the original sin : the quote could be understood in a way that suggests that the faithless progeny is mankind in its entirety.
But, let me give you some context for this quote :
and shall pervert;
For Man will heark'n to his glozing lies,
And easily transgress the sole Command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fall
Hee and his faithless Progeny: whose fault?
Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of mee
All he could have; I made him just and right
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
(III, 92-99)
The use of the word “pervert” implies that a part of mankind will be responsible for its transgression, not that the entire human race is doomed. Doom is not a thing per se. Man has been given the ability to choose whether to remain by god’s side or to transgress his “sole Command”. Here, Milton does something very powerful : he gives hope to mankind, when Calvinism solely allows mankind to suffer the consequences of the originals’ fall.
Arminianism distinguishes the actual original sin and the inheritance of its consequences. Indeed, Milton uses this concept to explain the quote :
"I formed them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves"
(III, 124-125)
The use of “till” suggests that a human being may or may not fall for his passions, and remain on god’s side or choose to commit sin. Man is therefore free to choose his own destiny. Arminianism judges that the original sin was washed by Jesus’s sacrifice. This quote is to be understood as a conditional.
While the frontier between arminianism and Calvinism may be very light, it is however a must to distinguish the 2 notions, in order to understand the innuendos that Milton created in his book. Indeed, he had to be clever, and to not forget that his epic was to be a controversial writing. The rewrinting of the genesis with satan as a central character was ambitious. Consequently, he had to bring implicit ideas to his writing in order to be true to himself but also to escape censorship.
Personal criticism
I personally admire Milton, both for his genius and his ambitious project.
Indeed, his genius allowed him to create works that have reached our modern society, through an intemporal form – the epic poem – as well as an admirable ability to write in iambic pentameters.
I think that Milton was misunderstood by his contemporaries, because he did not want to fit in any group, whether religious or social. He often isolated himself to focus on his writing and his love life was a catastrophe. The fact that he was a good student allowed him to study multiple disciplines, hence to develop his critical thinking. We may also consider that the frontier between the several ideologies that developed throughout the 17th century – Calvinism and Arminianism, but also royalism and republicanism – have had consequences on the way Milton saw his world. We could imagine that his mind was troubled by the accumulation of religious tensions, failed attacks, and corrupt governance.
Milton was successful in the making of a dual work : one that respects the original text of the bible, by stating that God is the supreme entity (the gradual degradation of Satan’s physical and mental aspect being Milton’s justification to the supreme power of God), but also one that places Man at the heart of its own destiny, by subtly denying God’s intervention in the fate of mankind.
While Calvinist views were popular at the time when Milton wrote his poem, Arminianism is, just as Milton’s book, a reinvention of the original sin, in the sense that it allows mankind to have hope for its future.
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