Paradise Lost Predestination Essay

“O that this too too solid flesh would melt,/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,/Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter.” (1.2.129-132)

As a reflection of the significance of the item learned God is at the beginning, for our Christian faith and Christian life, how we live makes a difference in what God will do in the end.

The story of Creation found in Genesis 1-3 has captured the attention of countless Christian theologians throughout the ages. Despite the fact that the text of these chapters are quite short, it has proved itself to be a fertile ground from which many of the central tenets of Christian doctrine have sprouted. This fruitful text has also spurred a variety of differing interpretations of the Creation and Fall. Augustine of Hippo and Lady Julian of Norwich are two theologians who interpreted Genesis 1-3 in vastly different ways. The aim of this paper is to make a thematically organized comparison of Julian of Norwich’s interpretation (which is mostly apparent within her short parable on the Lord and the Servant, Revelations of Divine Love) with Augustine’s influential interpretation of Genesis 1-3.

He goes on, in the same section to state that a men of free spirit, the free spirit being another name of the archetype of preparatory human being, had a boon in polytheism, for it allowed people to create their own morality because they chose their gods from many (Science 192). The free spirit, then, is someone who does not succumb to the pressures of outside morality, but rather is able to construct, at least partially, his own value. This makes them stand out above others during the time when a monotheistic morality is in decline.

In the second paragraph on page 88, “the sovereign pleasure of God”, “the sovereign hand of Him” and “the restraining hand of God” were repeated several times. This repetition is meant to persuade the audience that it was not their own virtue that prevented them from Hell but the grace of God that actually saved them from suffering. Mentioning the point again and again would intensify the audience’s fear of Almighty God’s omnipotence and the audience’s guilt about their sins. In this way, Jonathan successfully

The more it moves, the more it yields.” In chapter 8, when the scripture says “The best of man is like water, which benefits all things, and does not contend with them, which flows in places that others disdain, where it is in harmony with the way” which is an example of human nature

Unfortunately, human nature only lends itself to the assumption of certain abstract concepts such as `natural law', an assumption Milton develops in Paradise Lost. Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton expands upon the teaching that human actions affect human freedom and that this is a consequence of the assumption of the natural law that the Creator owns the created. Moreover, the

“...in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie,...” (Titus 1:2). The Bible gives the exact account of the history of the world.  John Milton’s Paradise Lost is a play off of the account given in The Bible of the war in Heaven, the creation of the world, and the fall of mankind.  He used the Bible as his inspiration and altered the events told in Genesis.  Though The Bible and Paradise Lost tell different accounts of the same story, they have many things in common, such as: Satan’s fall from Heaven, Adam and Eve’s fall from Paradise, and Adam and Eve’s dismissal from the garden.

John Milton's Paradise Lost attempts to justify "God's will" by giving a better understanding of the "ways of God", according to the author. In his work, Milton addresses several issues from biblical text as he expands on the "role of woman" as it is written in the book of Genesis. "Woman's role" is recognized and presented as one that is subordinate to man. Several associations are recognized between Milton's work and books of the Bible which reveal much about the way both of these books intend to define the role of a woman.

The triangle of theodicy begins in Milton’s Paradise Lost before mankind is made. The novel goes through a series of falls among the characters that help Milton explain his idea of theodicy through an epic poem. “Paradise Lost, which chronicles Satan's temptation of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Eden, is widely regarded as his masterpiece and one of the greatest epic poems in world literature.” (Horace) The opening lines of the poem tell you of the fall of man. “Of Man’s First disobedience, and the fruit of that Forbidden Tree whose mortal taste Brought Death into the world,” (Book 1 lines 1-3) However, there had to be a fall before the humans, which was Satan, or else Adam and Eve would have never fallen. The first fall happens before man and consisted of Satan and his followers. “Milton's epic poem opens on the fiery lake

Milton was, by no means, a feminist, and was of quite a conventional outlook when it came to gender roles as is apparent in the fourth book of Paradise Lost, which has inevitably been scrutinized over and over again under the modern gendered eye. “Paradise Lost,” says Shannon Miller, “is Milton’s most sustained attempt to represent in poetry, gander roles, relations and hierarchy.”It is evident, she points out, in the course of his introduction of Adam and Eve in book IV, the stories of creation they relate there and in book VIII, and finally in the way Milton presents the consequences of the Fall. The reader observes the process by which gender is created as a cultural category.

Milton, through Satan's soliloquies in Book 4, shows that Satan's idea of free will is a facade, and God carefully manipulates him to fulfill his plan of Adam and Eve's fall. While speaking, Satan inadvertently places doubts in the reader's mind that his will is free. Satan proves through his actions that God created him to act in a very narrow range, even though he himself does not realize this. The combination of pride, ambition, abhorrence of subordination, and ignorance of his own state as a puppet lead to perpetually diminishing stature and divinity.

"Rhetoric and sophistry testify to the fact that the world in which we live is a

Of Things Invisible to Mortal SightThe Holy Bible is in many ways a story of origins. The history recounted both in the Old and New Testaments has at its base the perception of a fallen humanity; beginning with the fall from Eden and the nature of evil, to the means of regaining Gods grace and the discussion of free will, it emphasizes humanitys inability to fully comprehend the nature of God and of the universe. In writing his epic Paradise Lost, John Milton is fully aware of his limitations as a mortal man; however, in an attempt to transcend the finite to the infinite, to describe the indescribable and to understand the unknown, Milton bases his arguments on Biblical theology to show that mankind has fallen from immortality to mortality

In this plan for man's salvation the end shall justify God's means. Therefore justifing the problem of evil and reasons for allowing both sin and death to exist. This ultimate plan of God's Milton presents in Paradise Lost is also a Greater Good Defense. Still, some might not understand why God finds it necessary to put his creations through this process. Milton shows us how this process benefits mankind who has fallen from grace, and also benefits God.