Today was the last of our six-part series on Milton’s Paradise Lost. It was my first time teaching the book and it had been a long time since I read it. There was a lot more there than I remembered. More than just obtuse and artificial English language there is a very complicated politics and theology to deal with.
Milton wrapped an allegory of the failed Parliamentarian utopia that was the Commonwealth into an anti-trinitarian, pseudo Calvinist theology that leaves the reader pained and puzzled at best.
I would be lying to say I understood it. But now I’m reminded why the book has had some many great minds attack it from so many different angles. It’s not just a disagreement of Milton’s use (or abuse) of the English language. There are much more troubling issues to deal with.
Did Milton really side with Satan? Did he align the Commonwealth with the Satanic council and Cromwell with Satan? Was the Fall with Adam and Eve’s new knowledge of Good and evil really bad? Was the expulsion from Paradise with a new life in a predestined broken world an allegory of the post-Commonwealth world under the monarchy? Was Milton waiting for a new Cromwell as Adam and Eve wait for the Messiah in Book 12?
I certainly don’t know the answers to these questions after my little six week study. Maybe the opportunity will arise again to cycle back. Next time I will dig into the anti-trinitarian literature of the time. In particular, I would love to take some time reading the Racovian Catechism and Socinianism.
What book should we study next?
The Paradise Lost: Final Thoughts by The Tomb, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
