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Paradise Lost
Journal One: The Tree
Though the tree is only briefly mentioned at the very beginning of the book, it is obviously of primary importance. One of the explanations I have heard for the injunction not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is that this knowledge belonged to God alone. It could be argued that only God was able to fully understand such knowledge, and therefore the only being capable of rendering true justice. If man (that is, Adam and Eve) were to eat the fruit, they would form an imperfect notion of good and evil which would lead to injustice -- something human history has shown to be ever-present. At the same time, it would be encroaching on divine territory. This is part of what makes he fruit so enticing, and the Serpent is able to convince them that they will become equal to God and no longer subject to his rules if only they ate the fruit and gained the knowledge that its flesh bestowed -- and of course, they bought (and bit) it.
Journal Two: God's Will?
The issue of God's omniscience vs. The supposed free will of man has plagued theologians for millennia, and it is doubtful that I will solve it in this half page response. Milton's version of the tale does not really seem to support this reading, however. Though God was ultimately responsible for Satan's being in the right (or wrong) place at the wrong (or right) time, he clearly shows Adam making a conscious decision to eat the fruit despite the consequences. This seems to suggest that free will can operate regardless of God's desires, as long as He doesn't directly intervene. Whether or not He wanted them to eat the fruit is an unanswerable question, and largely pointless. It is certain that He didn't want to stop them from eating the fruit badly enough to intervene, despite his omniscience and omnipotence. The rest was up to Adam, Eve, and Satan.
Tests will follow. Continue to cultivate by day, and sleep by night, for even the Nightingale sings of golden slumbers. No want or will of evil haunts this Heavenly hour or dare awakens conscience. Do not act in haste for the fate of humankind has not yet been marbled in stone. According to Milton, Satan's persuasive speech advices Eve that her eyes will be open and that "Millions of spiritual
And so, Kenton goes on, given this schism between East and West, it is his theory that the schism was perhaps symbolized through the interactions between God and the Devil. The freedom of the individual to find his way to God "through Scripture...coincided with Milton's commitment to symbolically unify East and West as proof of the regeneration," Kenton wrote (p. 17). Indeed, Milton's Christian background "necessitates" the need for
459). Such an encounter is the mainstay of Book 9 since both Eve and Adam are chastened by God and are forced to reason with Him in order to confess to their sin and accept the punishment required in order to 'multiply and replenish' the earth as they had been commanded. They knew the reason behind such a commandment, and they also knew that in the long run, what
Paradise Lost John Milton's Paradise Lost tells the story of Heaven and Hell both before and after Adam and Eve fell from grace. At the center of Milton epic poem is the story of the character of Satan, a being who has been sent to the underworld to live in agony forever after trying and failing to take over the control of Heaven from God. Satan will spend the rest of
Paradise Lost In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Milton tells of Satan's banishment from Heaven. The entire event is first relegated to a handful of verses from the Christian bible book of Isaiah, and apocalyptic imagery from the books of Revelation. Milton applied his poetic license to the setting, characters, and motives in order to expand the setting and give his readers a humanized perspective of these events. Through the tapestry of his
Doctrine of the Holy Trinity The Doctrine of the Trinity and Anti-Trinitarian Theologies: Servetus, Milton, Newton The Doctrine of the Trinity The Arian Heresy Anti-Trinitarianism Part I: Michael Servetus Anti-Trinitarianism Part II: John Milton Sir Isaac Newton The Arian heresy -- or rejection of the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity -- is actually relatively uncommon among contemporary Christian denominations; to pick one particular national example, Post-Reformation England would tolerate a broad array of theological stances -- from