Yet again I am writing a paper on Paradise Lost. The first time (or two) I read Milton’s book I didn’t like it all that much. I do now. Milton is a poet, for sure; but I find myself more intrigued by Milton the theologian. Paradise Lost is serious theology. A couple of things about this that interest me:
- 1. compare the form of Paradise Lost to, say, Calvin’s Institutes; Theology is a creative endeavor, Milton seems to have serious reservations about the capabilities of human knowledge after the fall, and it seems appropriate for him to connect the activity of theology with poetry rather than a seemingly objective philosophical style.
- 2. the stuff of theology consists in a interpretive retelling of the biblical narrative; telling the story again for a new generation, in a rather pointed manner. I find this to echo what the prophets were doing by interpreting Israel’s present through the Exodus story. “God, who faithfully brought you out of the land of slavery will certainly be faithful and bring you back from exile.”
- 3. Paradise Lost (and Paradise Regained, for that matter) is meaty stuff, and Milton asks his readers to wrestle long and hard with both the form and the content of the work: Spencer set out to write the Fairy Queen so that by reading it one could become a gentleman; Milton, too, wants to shape his readers - his theology demands an (ethical) response.
More and more I want to do theology like Milton, and not like those theologians whom I had to read in bible school. Theology as Poesy, more than as Philosophy.
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