The wisest words of this section are lines 763-776, which begins:
"better had I Lived ignorant of the future, so had borne My part of evil only, each day's lot Enough to bear";
and continues:
"Let no man seek Henceforth to be foretold what shall befall Him or his children, Evil he may be sure. Which neither his foreknowing can prevent, And he the future evil shall no less In apprehension than in substance feel Grevious to bear".
Even those who foresaw the future in the Bible did not fully understand their visions. God does not burden his children with more than their daily burdens. As the Lord Jesus said, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
I note than in line 515-16, after Adam's vision of the diseases humanity will suffer, that Milton's Michael says, "Their maker's image then forsook them." As a nurse with experience of helping treat illness in three continents and in patients from every economic strata, I have seen all of the ailments Milton describes generally. In all my patients I have seen the image of God. No matter how broken and distorted the image may be - and by no means were all my patients patient in their suffering - no human is dehumanized by suffering physical or mental illness.
Also, as a lifelong asthmatic, Michael's supposed remedy at line 530 against all these diseases is nonsense. As the Preacher says "Time and chance happens to all". The lung infection which led to my childhood diagnosis of asthma happened when I was five months old. Among my patients I have encountered diabetic, cancer patients, stroke victims, etc. who say to me in bewilderment, "But I did all the right things." A good diet and temperate living will help reduce complications (eg. if I gained too much weight, it would make my asthmatic symptoms more acute), but all of us will will feel the lash of our mortality at some point.
That's interesting, Holly. I took that line about forsaking God's image and taking on the image of Satan as being about the moment sin was chosen--the "ungoverned appetite"--not in the results (sickness) of the sin. I suppose it's a fine line, but that's how I read it.
You are absolutely right in pointing out that the effects of sin (original, communal sin) are not necessarily the result of individual choice or cause and effect. That thinking has done much harm.
May respond more but I'm on the road! Beautiful reflections of the work and ministry you've done.
Karen, the line about the image of God would certainly seem to be directly and deliberately related to its immediate context, which is the preceding vision of sickness and the following admonition to temperate living. I don't think our current idea of the ongoing imago Dei in all humanity is one that was consistently held throughout Church history. An elderly pastor I know thought the image of God was totally destroyed by the Fall and only restored in Jesus Christ. I have also encountered those who say only Adam, not Eve, held the imago Dei. I think our current view of all humanity having the imago Dei is the correct one - otherwise the ban on killing humans (Genesis 9:6) and James' words on the hypocrisy of blessing God while cursing those who hold his image (James 3:9) would be rendered meaningless - but I wouldn't be surprised if Milton had an entirely different theological view on the image of God.
17th century Protestants did compartmentalize their treatment of humans based on who they perceived as Christian versus who they perceived as not Christian. I was recently reading about the 17th century formation of the Dutch East India Company, and was reminded of their brutal genocide in the Banda islands when its people proved obstacles to their spice trade. Yet the Dutch were proudly Protestant, having recently thrown off the brutal yoke of Catholic Spain. It is also seen in the differing designations of slaves in the newly formed American Protestant colonies in the 1600s, where 'Christian' (i.e. from England) slaves could gain their freedom, while pagan (i.e. from Africa) slaves were slaves for life. No, 17th century Protestants did not perceive all humanity as being in the image of God.
Yes, I am afraid you are right, Holly, about imagi Dei. And to think chattel slavery would thrive in the next two centuries. You are right. And also about the view of women in some sects.
Thank you Holly, this made me realise again that it is just Milton’s view of God and the angels, however beautifully written and I need to look at it as literature rather than theology.
After some not good experiences with megachurches I refuse to believe in a God less compassionate even than myself, and while I am definitely not team Satan in this I’m not sure I’m team God either !
We should not assume that the megachurch is team God either. While the mainline churches have almost blended into the culture - thin Christianity; many evangelical churches have decided to put a stick into the eye of the culture - sharp Christianity. Thick Christianity accepts that the culture is made up of both the heavenly city and the earthly city and the charge for Christian’s is to work for the flourishing of the community. How easy it is to build a platform for oneself and join the fray.
There is certainly a grimness and harshness in Milton, even when he is portraying Paradise, that I do not recognize as Christian, although I do recognise it from the fundamentalists and reactionary conservatives whom I grew up among.
Hi Holly, I also grew up in fundamentalist Christian America but do not remember the harshness in general - only in some people who seemed to believe they were supposed to call attention to all our peculiarities. I see this much more now as the culture wars have kicked off a campaign to coerce America into being a “Christian Nation.” This brand of nationalism actually overlooks huge moral failings in order to get and use power. I am just hoping that my church (a Swedish Baptist) does not succumb to the temptation.
I remember the harshness being tangible among the laymen, not the pastors*. But in our Baptist tradition, it is the laymen who vote to call a pastor. I left a Baptist church recently because the new pastor the congregation called was bringing in a form of Christian nationalism derived from Reformed theology, among other distortions of Scripture. He actually cited Milton's PL as valid scriptural commentary from the pulpit during a sermon.
*The elderly pastor who helped me most in my formative years, firmly believed the Holy Spirit would lead believers into all truth. So he simply taught verse by verse through entire books of the Bible, and refused to lord it over the congregation with fire and brimstone. I now disagree with some of that pastor's interpretations - like his belief regarding the imago Dei - but the way he taught gave me permission to think for myself about the Bible.
Holly, glad you saw it and were able to leave! I love the testimony of the other pastor’s belief in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I know you’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t recall if you said what parts of PL the CN pastor cited? It’s so hard for me to imagine such a person even engaging with Milton. But on the other hand some strains of Christian Nationalism are co-opting classical education for their own purposes…
I should add that I have long observed draw towards 'the classics' among the conservative evangelical crowd, currently known as 'theo-bros' and the accompanying 'trad' family construct. It is as if this primarily American movement wants to imitate the English public school tradition of last century, but on a lighter scale - a little Latin, a little Greek, a little reading of the 'great' authors... ATI promised us so much of that kind of thing and delivered so little, but I am seeing many other such curriculums still on offer, from Doug Wilson and his ilk. So much of what is going on now, in the wedding of politics and evangelicalism gives me a strong sense of deja vu.
He didn't cite any particular passage, rather he made an assertion - I don't remember the exact wording, but it was regarding the meaning of human sin and rebellion and God's plan of redemption, and then said, "This is what Milton is saying in 'Paradise Lost", and recommended the congregation to read both Paradise Lost and Regained to understand more. I should note that this pastor's sermons were frequently a bit incoherent, with non-sequitors and other logical fallacies that sometimes left me puzzled about what exactly the point was that he was trying to make. What set off definite alarm bells for me from his sermons were statements that I recognized as CN and anti-Semitism that were drawn from Reformed Covenentalism and the Reformed teaching on the seed of Satan.
*My elderly pastor was actually a five-point Calvinist, but he explicitly refuted broader Reformed theology. His critiques linked it to the Christian Nationalism of 17th century Protestant states in Europe.
One more thought: As a physician I found Milton’s list of maladies (480-488) fascinating. So many diseases, until relatively recently, were just named by their symptoms. He pretty much covered them all.
The healthful solution? Surprisingly modern: temperance. “Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight.” Good advice for us all.
And then the archangel concludes with this oft-quoted line:
“Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv’st
Live well, how long or short permit to Heav’n”. (553-4)
So interesting, Amy. I suspect much of this knowledge and even the terms and categories were relatively new in the early modern age. It’s quite a catalogue Milton has here. I really liked this part.
"This most afflicts me, that departing hence, As from his face I shall be hid, depriv'd His blessed count'nance; here I could frequent, With worship, place by place where he voutsaf'd Presence Divine, and to my Sons relate; On this Mount he appeerd, under this Tree Stood visible, among these Pines his voice I heard, here with him at this Fountain talk'd: So many grateful Altars I would reare Of grassie Terfe, and pile up every Stone Of lustre from the brook, in memorie, Or monument to Ages, and thereon Offer sweet smelling Gumms and Fruits and Flours: In yonder nether World where shall I seek His bright appearances, or foot step-trace?"
Spend any amount of time around American Christians and they are sure to tell you that even though they believe they are saved by grace, they really think they are saved by their own works. (This has admittedly been the whole reason for Lutherans still being around; once people get it through their heads they aren’t saved by works, we’ll pack it up.)
As Adam looks out onto a new world, where God has been banished to the theoretical and he must look to himself; the subtle temptation to begin to enjoy his prison and punishment will take root in his soul. That was what the fruit promised, and what God promises will take place. Adam was promised that he would be able to judge between what was good and bad, and it is only a short hop, skip, and jump to imagining that good and bad is really just what is good and bad for the individual. Nothing feeds this illusion more than our work. He misses God to be sure, but the labors laid upon his back will soon become a new master ... a new god.
They say one of the hardest things for pastors to do is to be able to separate our identity as Christians with our vocation as pastors. When attendance is bad and we are fighting endless, pointless battles; we begin to doubt whether or not we are good Christians. When the numbers are good in worship and people tell us how important we are to their faith life, we begin to imagine that we are super Christians. The newspapers are filled with stories of Christian leaders who have succumbed to despair or self importance as the focus of their faith has shifted from God to their own ambitions.
I say that because I believe that all of us are tempted to turn our prison into our identity. We hate the idea of having to make the best of a bad situation so much, that we convince ourselves that maybe we can make heaven here on earth with just a little bit of work. Adam falls prey to “The Power of Positive Thinking” primitive edition. God is in heaven and Adam must take responsibility for his actions by working himself to death in his new kingdom of death.
Yet, I can't help but think that perhaps this mindset is slowly finding it sunset. In his 1930 essay "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the time his grandchildren were working age, people would only work 15 hours a week, as material needs would be easily met due to technological advancements. Many of us would be appalled with being told we only should work 15 hours a week. However, when one looks at all the technological advances, one can't escape the fact that there is a lot of busy work that is frankly unimportant and would have confused our ancestors with its pointlessness. Each technological innovation that was supposed to free us from constraints, has instead just filled up our schedule all the more. Emails mean that we can receive memos outside of the office. The home computer means that we can take our work with us. And we all know that the cell phone means that there is no time where we cannot be reached.
I don't think Adam thought of those things as he scanned the horizon and looked out into a new world where he would have to earn his bread from the sweat of his brow. Yet, there must've come a point where he stopped seeing his labor as punishment and began to see it as his salvation. So here is my big question, what will fall in humanity do when faced with an abundance of leisure and goods? What will fallen humanity do when it can no longer find its identity through it works?
There are many people who are grappling with this very dilemma. Take the book “Factfulness,” In that work Hans Rosling, along with Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Ola Rosling, explores the common misconceptions people have about the state of the world. The book highlights argues that the world is improving in many ways, contrary to popular belief, and provides tools to adopt a fact-based worldview. In the book "Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century" by J. Bradford DeLong examines the economic and technological transformations that occurred between 1870 and 2010, a period he refers to as the "long twentieth century." The book explores how this era brought unprecedented material wealth and technological advancements, doubling humanity's capabilities with each generation. However, it also delves into why these advancements failed to create a utopian society, instead it has led to deep sense of society-wide unease and even anger. In “The Decadent Society,” Ross Douthat takes a far more pessimistic view about contemporary life and blames the ennui on a purposelessness. His prescription is that people need more busywork in the form of a literal moonshot, as it were, to justify their existence. All of these works demonstrate that prosperity has not fulfilled the deep ache in the human heart. We want believed that it would, but the experiment over the last 30 or more years has demonstrated materialism cannot fill that emptiness.
So what does this have to do with Paradise Lost? Here's my question, what happens when there is no more work to do. Indeed, what happens when we realize that our salvation is not based upon our works, but is a gift freely given to us through grace? Humanity for millennia has been able to believe the lie that while Christianity preaches that our salvation is a free gift given to us by God; our real worth and measure was based on our works. How many people feel better about themselves after working hard on a project? It puts me in mind of Colonel Nicholson, from Pierre Boule’s wonderful novel, “Bridge on the River Kwai,” who becomes obsessed with constructing the bridge as a symbol of British ingenuity and discipline, despite aiding the enemy. Slowly the prisoner of war who has tried to live his life in the horrendous camp with a sense of honor and reliability, finds all of those good qualities used for evil ends.
We are going through the same crisis today on a society wide scale. Workaholics and drop outs alike exist in a world which is built upon works righteousness of some sort. Everybody feels a twinge of guilt when they take a break from their labors or a sense of angry envy when another person gets recognized in our desired fields. Now, as artificial intelligence and other aspects of automation come for white collar workers (as it had to our blue-collar brethren … though, admittedly we didn’t pay it as much attention as we should have); many of us are wondering what our lives are really worth when we just have to work 15 hours a week or less? And if we rebel in some way, is it because our motive are enlightened or righteous; or is just because the old Adam and us looks out upon the wide earth and sees a chance to make a name for himself by the sweat of his brow alone?
Wow, Philip. This is a lot to chew on. I’m going to mow some of this more. I’m also gonna check out some of the works that you mentioned here because this is fascinating to me. In my forthcoming book on calling and vocation, I briefly address the difference between working amidst scarcity and working amidst abundance. And of course, I quote Paradise Lost. :) but I don’t really press into the specific problems of abundance as you describe these writers doing and as your question raises. This is indeed much food for thought.
I don't have much to say this week, but I'm so glad to be a part of this journey reading "Paradise Lost." Also, book XI made me very grateful for my relationship with Jesus Christ. I loved listening to you read all that poetry this week. I can tell you to enjoy it, which makes it pleasant to listen to. Thanks for all your work on this essay and for sharing a bit about your home—it is very touching.
On your recommendation I've started listening to "Good Soil" on Audible. I love listening to people read their books. So far, it is excellent.
Thank you for the thank you. 😊 I enjoy reading (and writing) these posts. Some of the poetry is hard to read and I stumble but it’s still fun.
Speaking of reading audio books, I’ve never done one of mine! I never wanted to and was asked about it only for this new one. I don’t know how they decide who does and who doesn’t. Maybe my voice isn’t that great. I had to reject the first voice they offered me because it was too breathy and sweet and I couldn’t imagine her delivering some of my snarky lines!
My encouragement to you is that I think you should do an audio version of your new book in your voice. 😌People who appreciate you and your teaching style, who know you and your voice love it because it’s uniquely you. From the little I know about your upcoming book and its particular theme, It would make sense to read it in your own voice. 😍
One thing that struck me in reading this section, and Karen your beautiful reflection on it, is how in modern America we have lost touch with this idea of home. Like me, many Americans have grown up moving houses and cities, following job opportunities or postings, and living increasingly in virtual communities or spaces, making it difficult for us to identify with Adam and Eve who feel so profoundly the loss of a physical place. The people of Israel in exile would have understood this keenly - it would indeed have resonated as a consequence of failing to keep God's law that they could immediately identify with. Today, I think we (modern North Americans) can struggle to understand the trauma of displaced people forced to leave their native land because we never lived in, settled in, loved, and were part of a place in the way that Adam and Eve, the Israelites, and many displaced people today were.
That’s powerful to think about the trauma of a people being displaced from their homeland. I mean, obviously we think about it when we learn history and read the news. But thinking about it in a more personal context as you suggest opens it up in a different way. Thank you for sharing that insight. We really value rootedness too little these days.
Lines 315-333 really impacted me. I have often struggled with what appears to me the absence of God. Milton's words truly captured for me the sense of loss Adam experienced.
Each section of this book resonates with experiences I have had. The gruesomeness of death came home to me reading Kristin Hannah’s book on the nurses of Vietnam - Frankie came from a privileged background (Edenic?) and was plunged into the horror of a cascade of bodies from the fire fights that had to be triaged and treated. She never really recovered from her two year tour. My experience with death came when my wife of 58 years passed due to breast cancer and shortly after my mom of natural causes. I will never forget 2019 and have written poetry to remember - “Oh the Places We Have Gone” and another about my wife’s artistic temperament. Carol and I moved into a house in 1997 (I’m still there) that had been on the garden walk the previous year. Before we knew about the house we took a course in perennials from Tony Tiznik who was chief arborist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL. Our yard was heaven or us and a delight for our neighbors. It takes work but I still get out and plant in the spring. Finally, as a history teacher I came to understand how our founders desired that virtue be cultivated in our people and the Christian faith and the King James Bible was all part of that. I still see remnants of that virtue every time I go out to breakfast with all the older folk in my neighborhood. How wise the words: “. . . if thou well observe/The rule of not too much; by temperance taught, In what thou eatest and drinkest; seeking from thence Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight . . . So mayest thou live, like ripe fruit.”
I have had Kristin Hannah’s work highly recommended to me. Love that connection as well as the connection to the founders and how well they understood our need for virtue for “happiness” or the good life.
Love your description of breakfast with the neighbors.
I've fallen a bit behind in the reading, but I will catch up and share some thoughts. For now, either meeting time would work for me (assuming that is Monday, April 14th).
I was also struck with the wrenching pain of Eve, in particular, with leaving Eden. We were set up for it in 178-180, when she says:
“while here we dwell,
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?
Here let us live, though in fall’s state, content.”
Eden was all she had ever known. She knew things would be different, but she was going to make this familiar place a home once again. Yet it was not to be. I felt her pain.
The opening lines sent me scurrying to research “prevenient grace”, which I’d heard of but couldn’t define:
“Thus they in lowliest plight repentant stood
Praying, for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient Grace descended had removed
The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
Regenerate grow instead”.
Even our repentance is only possible because of God’s gift of grace. Prevenient grace is God acting before I have the slightest inclination to turn toward Him.
Forgot to mention that I found "The Carcass" to be wonderful. That's probably related to my age, recent retirement, and the fact that I live in a place that is death-denying - Baudelaire brings balance.
Loved the title selection. I would have considered, "No despicable gift" as well - Like Adam I can benefit from a reminder of God's largesse (a term perhaps too crass), to "cast out" of one Garden, but in some ways only to a different garden and not without some access to the Creator's presence.
I could try to attend any of those (three?) dates for ZOOM.
Hi Karen! I’m behind of Paradise Lost due to lots of travel lately but, man, this section hit home. It just feels very prescient and comforting in light of the state of the world today. Thank you for sharing it with us and sharing your heart about the recent loss of your mom—her flowers are beautiful! As usual, you are following in her footsteps, “trying to remember everything she taught you about beauty.” 🥰
Quick note on the Zoom call…is the second date, Monday, April 7 or 14?
Definitely follow modern medical advice rather than Milton
Amen! :)
The wisest words of this section are lines 763-776, which begins:
"better had I Lived ignorant of the future, so had borne My part of evil only, each day's lot Enough to bear";
and continues:
"Let no man seek Henceforth to be foretold what shall befall Him or his children, Evil he may be sure. Which neither his foreknowing can prevent, And he the future evil shall no less In apprehension than in substance feel Grevious to bear".
Even those who foresaw the future in the Bible did not fully understand their visions. God does not burden his children with more than their daily burdens. As the Lord Jesus said, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
I note than in line 515-16, after Adam's vision of the diseases humanity will suffer, that Milton's Michael says, "Their maker's image then forsook them." As a nurse with experience of helping treat illness in three continents and in patients from every economic strata, I have seen all of the ailments Milton describes generally. In all my patients I have seen the image of God. No matter how broken and distorted the image may be - and by no means were all my patients patient in their suffering - no human is dehumanized by suffering physical or mental illness.
Also, as a lifelong asthmatic, Michael's supposed remedy at line 530 against all these diseases is nonsense. As the Preacher says "Time and chance happens to all". The lung infection which led to my childhood diagnosis of asthma happened when I was five months old. Among my patients I have encountered diabetic, cancer patients, stroke victims, etc. who say to me in bewilderment, "But I did all the right things." A good diet and temperate living will help reduce complications (eg. if I gained too much weight, it would make my asthmatic symptoms more acute), but all of us will will feel the lash of our mortality at some point.
That's interesting, Holly. I took that line about forsaking God's image and taking on the image of Satan as being about the moment sin was chosen--the "ungoverned appetite"--not in the results (sickness) of the sin. I suppose it's a fine line, but that's how I read it.
You are absolutely right in pointing out that the effects of sin (original, communal sin) are not necessarily the result of individual choice or cause and effect. That thinking has done much harm.
May respond more but I'm on the road! Beautiful reflections of the work and ministry you've done.
Karen, the line about the image of God would certainly seem to be directly and deliberately related to its immediate context, which is the preceding vision of sickness and the following admonition to temperate living. I don't think our current idea of the ongoing imago Dei in all humanity is one that was consistently held throughout Church history. An elderly pastor I know thought the image of God was totally destroyed by the Fall and only restored in Jesus Christ. I have also encountered those who say only Adam, not Eve, held the imago Dei. I think our current view of all humanity having the imago Dei is the correct one - otherwise the ban on killing humans (Genesis 9:6) and James' words on the hypocrisy of blessing God while cursing those who hold his image (James 3:9) would be rendered meaningless - but I wouldn't be surprised if Milton had an entirely different theological view on the image of God.
17th century Protestants did compartmentalize their treatment of humans based on who they perceived as Christian versus who they perceived as not Christian. I was recently reading about the 17th century formation of the Dutch East India Company, and was reminded of their brutal genocide in the Banda islands when its people proved obstacles to their spice trade. Yet the Dutch were proudly Protestant, having recently thrown off the brutal yoke of Catholic Spain. It is also seen in the differing designations of slaves in the newly formed American Protestant colonies in the 1600s, where 'Christian' (i.e. from England) slaves could gain their freedom, while pagan (i.e. from Africa) slaves were slaves for life. No, 17th century Protestants did not perceive all humanity as being in the image of God.
Yes, I am afraid you are right, Holly, about imagi Dei. And to think chattel slavery would thrive in the next two centuries. You are right. And also about the view of women in some sects.
Thank you Holly, this made me realise again that it is just Milton’s view of God and the angels, however beautifully written and I need to look at it as literature rather than theology.
After some not good experiences with megachurches I refuse to believe in a God less compassionate even than myself, and while I am definitely not team Satan in this I’m not sure I’m team God either !
We should not assume that the megachurch is team God either. While the mainline churches have almost blended into the culture - thin Christianity; many evangelical churches have decided to put a stick into the eye of the culture - sharp Christianity. Thick Christianity accepts that the culture is made up of both the heavenly city and the earthly city and the charge for Christian’s is to work for the flourishing of the community. How easy it is to build a platform for oneself and join the fray.
Amen! I wrote on this topic and will send it out in a substack extra tomorrow!
There is certainly a grimness and harshness in Milton, even when he is portraying Paradise, that I do not recognize as Christian, although I do recognise it from the fundamentalists and reactionary conservatives whom I grew up among.
Yes indeed . And no I would not have liked to be Eve in paradise or out of it in Milton’s account
Or Adam. 🙃
Well no
Hi Holly, I also grew up in fundamentalist Christian America but do not remember the harshness in general - only in some people who seemed to believe they were supposed to call attention to all our peculiarities. I see this much more now as the culture wars have kicked off a campaign to coerce America into being a “Christian Nation.” This brand of nationalism actually overlooks huge moral failings in order to get and use power. I am just hoping that my church (a Swedish Baptist) does not succumb to the temptation.
I remember the harshness being tangible among the laymen, not the pastors*. But in our Baptist tradition, it is the laymen who vote to call a pastor. I left a Baptist church recently because the new pastor the congregation called was bringing in a form of Christian nationalism derived from Reformed theology, among other distortions of Scripture. He actually cited Milton's PL as valid scriptural commentary from the pulpit during a sermon.
*The elderly pastor who helped me most in my formative years, firmly believed the Holy Spirit would lead believers into all truth. So he simply taught verse by verse through entire books of the Bible, and refused to lord it over the congregation with fire and brimstone. I now disagree with some of that pastor's interpretations - like his belief regarding the imago Dei - but the way he taught gave me permission to think for myself about the Bible.
Holly, glad you saw it and were able to leave! I love the testimony of the other pastor’s belief in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I know you’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t recall if you said what parts of PL the CN pastor cited? It’s so hard for me to imagine such a person even engaging with Milton. But on the other hand some strains of Christian Nationalism are co-opting classical education for their own purposes…
I should add that I have long observed draw towards 'the classics' among the conservative evangelical crowd, currently known as 'theo-bros' and the accompanying 'trad' family construct. It is as if this primarily American movement wants to imitate the English public school tradition of last century, but on a lighter scale - a little Latin, a little Greek, a little reading of the 'great' authors... ATI promised us so much of that kind of thing and delivered so little, but I am seeing many other such curriculums still on offer, from Doug Wilson and his ilk. So much of what is going on now, in the wedding of politics and evangelicalism gives me a strong sense of deja vu.
He didn't cite any particular passage, rather he made an assertion - I don't remember the exact wording, but it was regarding the meaning of human sin and rebellion and God's plan of redemption, and then said, "This is what Milton is saying in 'Paradise Lost", and recommended the congregation to read both Paradise Lost and Regained to understand more. I should note that this pastor's sermons were frequently a bit incoherent, with non-sequitors and other logical fallacies that sometimes left me puzzled about what exactly the point was that he was trying to make. What set off definite alarm bells for me from his sermons were statements that I recognized as CN and anti-Semitism that were drawn from Reformed Covenentalism and the Reformed teaching on the seed of Satan.
*My elderly pastor was actually a five-point Calvinist, but he explicitly refuted broader Reformed theology. His critiques linked it to the Christian Nationalism of 17th century Protestant states in Europe.
Very interesting insight.
😀
One more thought: As a physician I found Milton’s list of maladies (480-488) fascinating. So many diseases, until relatively recently, were just named by their symptoms. He pretty much covered them all.
The healthful solution? Surprisingly modern: temperance. “Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight.” Good advice for us all.
And then the archangel concludes with this oft-quoted line:
“Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv’st
Live well, how long or short permit to Heav’n”. (553-4)
Wise words.
So interesting, Amy. I suspect much of this knowledge and even the terms and categories were relatively new in the early modern age. It’s quite a catalogue Milton has here. I really liked this part.
"This most afflicts me, that departing hence, As from his face I shall be hid, depriv'd His blessed count'nance; here I could frequent, With worship, place by place where he voutsaf'd Presence Divine, and to my Sons relate; On this Mount he appeerd, under this Tree Stood visible, among these Pines his voice I heard, here with him at this Fountain talk'd: So many grateful Altars I would reare Of grassie Terfe, and pile up every Stone Of lustre from the brook, in memorie, Or monument to Ages, and thereon Offer sweet smelling Gumms and Fruits and Flours: In yonder nether World where shall I seek His bright appearances, or foot step-trace?"
Spend any amount of time around American Christians and they are sure to tell you that even though they believe they are saved by grace, they really think they are saved by their own works. (This has admittedly been the whole reason for Lutherans still being around; once people get it through their heads they aren’t saved by works, we’ll pack it up.)
As Adam looks out onto a new world, where God has been banished to the theoretical and he must look to himself; the subtle temptation to begin to enjoy his prison and punishment will take root in his soul. That was what the fruit promised, and what God promises will take place. Adam was promised that he would be able to judge between what was good and bad, and it is only a short hop, skip, and jump to imagining that good and bad is really just what is good and bad for the individual. Nothing feeds this illusion more than our work. He misses God to be sure, but the labors laid upon his back will soon become a new master ... a new god.
They say one of the hardest things for pastors to do is to be able to separate our identity as Christians with our vocation as pastors. When attendance is bad and we are fighting endless, pointless battles; we begin to doubt whether or not we are good Christians. When the numbers are good in worship and people tell us how important we are to their faith life, we begin to imagine that we are super Christians. The newspapers are filled with stories of Christian leaders who have succumbed to despair or self importance as the focus of their faith has shifted from God to their own ambitions.
I say that because I believe that all of us are tempted to turn our prison into our identity. We hate the idea of having to make the best of a bad situation so much, that we convince ourselves that maybe we can make heaven here on earth with just a little bit of work. Adam falls prey to “The Power of Positive Thinking” primitive edition. God is in heaven and Adam must take responsibility for his actions by working himself to death in his new kingdom of death.
Yet, I can't help but think that perhaps this mindset is slowly finding it sunset. In his 1930 essay "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the time his grandchildren were working age, people would only work 15 hours a week, as material needs would be easily met due to technological advancements. Many of us would be appalled with being told we only should work 15 hours a week. However, when one looks at all the technological advances, one can't escape the fact that there is a lot of busy work that is frankly unimportant and would have confused our ancestors with its pointlessness. Each technological innovation that was supposed to free us from constraints, has instead just filled up our schedule all the more. Emails mean that we can receive memos outside of the office. The home computer means that we can take our work with us. And we all know that the cell phone means that there is no time where we cannot be reached.
I don't think Adam thought of those things as he scanned the horizon and looked out into a new world where he would have to earn his bread from the sweat of his brow. Yet, there must've come a point where he stopped seeing his labor as punishment and began to see it as his salvation. So here is my big question, what will fall in humanity do when faced with an abundance of leisure and goods? What will fallen humanity do when it can no longer find its identity through it works?
There are many people who are grappling with this very dilemma. Take the book “Factfulness,” In that work Hans Rosling, along with Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Ola Rosling, explores the common misconceptions people have about the state of the world. The book highlights argues that the world is improving in many ways, contrary to popular belief, and provides tools to adopt a fact-based worldview. In the book "Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century" by J. Bradford DeLong examines the economic and technological transformations that occurred between 1870 and 2010, a period he refers to as the "long twentieth century." The book explores how this era brought unprecedented material wealth and technological advancements, doubling humanity's capabilities with each generation. However, it also delves into why these advancements failed to create a utopian society, instead it has led to deep sense of society-wide unease and even anger. In “The Decadent Society,” Ross Douthat takes a far more pessimistic view about contemporary life and blames the ennui on a purposelessness. His prescription is that people need more busywork in the form of a literal moonshot, as it were, to justify their existence. All of these works demonstrate that prosperity has not fulfilled the deep ache in the human heart. We want believed that it would, but the experiment over the last 30 or more years has demonstrated materialism cannot fill that emptiness.
So what does this have to do with Paradise Lost? Here's my question, what happens when there is no more work to do. Indeed, what happens when we realize that our salvation is not based upon our works, but is a gift freely given to us through grace? Humanity for millennia has been able to believe the lie that while Christianity preaches that our salvation is a free gift given to us by God; our real worth and measure was based on our works. How many people feel better about themselves after working hard on a project? It puts me in mind of Colonel Nicholson, from Pierre Boule’s wonderful novel, “Bridge on the River Kwai,” who becomes obsessed with constructing the bridge as a symbol of British ingenuity and discipline, despite aiding the enemy. Slowly the prisoner of war who has tried to live his life in the horrendous camp with a sense of honor and reliability, finds all of those good qualities used for evil ends.
We are going through the same crisis today on a society wide scale. Workaholics and drop outs alike exist in a world which is built upon works righteousness of some sort. Everybody feels a twinge of guilt when they take a break from their labors or a sense of angry envy when another person gets recognized in our desired fields. Now, as artificial intelligence and other aspects of automation come for white collar workers (as it had to our blue-collar brethren … though, admittedly we didn’t pay it as much attention as we should have); many of us are wondering what our lives are really worth when we just have to work 15 hours a week or less? And if we rebel in some way, is it because our motive are enlightened or righteous; or is just because the old Adam and us looks out upon the wide earth and sees a chance to make a name for himself by the sweat of his brow alone?
Wow, Philip. This is a lot to chew on. I’m going to mow some of this more. I’m also gonna check out some of the works that you mentioned here because this is fascinating to me. In my forthcoming book on calling and vocation, I briefly address the difference between working amidst scarcity and working amidst abundance. And of course, I quote Paradise Lost. :) but I don’t really press into the specific problems of abundance as you describe these writers doing and as your question raises. This is indeed much food for thought.
I looked up Factfulness (and just ordered it). I remember now hearing about their argument when the book came out. It was very striking.
I don't have much to say this week, but I'm so glad to be a part of this journey reading "Paradise Lost." Also, book XI made me very grateful for my relationship with Jesus Christ. I loved listening to you read all that poetry this week. I can tell you to enjoy it, which makes it pleasant to listen to. Thanks for all your work on this essay and for sharing a bit about your home—it is very touching.
On your recommendation I've started listening to "Good Soil" on Audible. I love listening to people read their books. So far, it is excellent.
Thank you for the thank you. 😊 I enjoy reading (and writing) these posts. Some of the poetry is hard to read and I stumble but it’s still fun.
Speaking of reading audio books, I’ve never done one of mine! I never wanted to and was asked about it only for this new one. I don’t know how they decide who does and who doesn’t. Maybe my voice isn’t that great. I had to reject the first voice they offered me because it was too breathy and sweet and I couldn’t imagine her delivering some of my snarky lines!
My encouragement to you is that I think you should do an audio version of your new book in your voice. 😌People who appreciate you and your teaching style, who know you and your voice love it because it’s uniquely you. From the little I know about your upcoming book and its particular theme, It would make sense to read it in your own voice. 😍
Thank you for the vote of confidence. But it’s already done.
Ah got it. ♥️
One thing that struck me in reading this section, and Karen your beautiful reflection on it, is how in modern America we have lost touch with this idea of home. Like me, many Americans have grown up moving houses and cities, following job opportunities or postings, and living increasingly in virtual communities or spaces, making it difficult for us to identify with Adam and Eve who feel so profoundly the loss of a physical place. The people of Israel in exile would have understood this keenly - it would indeed have resonated as a consequence of failing to keep God's law that they could immediately identify with. Today, I think we (modern North Americans) can struggle to understand the trauma of displaced people forced to leave their native land because we never lived in, settled in, loved, and were part of a place in the way that Adam and Eve, the Israelites, and many displaced people today were.
That’s powerful to think about the trauma of a people being displaced from their homeland. I mean, obviously we think about it when we learn history and read the news. But thinking about it in a more personal context as you suggest opens it up in a different way. Thank you for sharing that insight. We really value rootedness too little these days.
Lines 315-333 really impacted me. I have often struggled with what appears to me the absence of God. Milton's words truly captured for me the sense of loss Adam experienced.
I agree. Milton captures so much of our humanity so well.
Each section of this book resonates with experiences I have had. The gruesomeness of death came home to me reading Kristin Hannah’s book on the nurses of Vietnam - Frankie came from a privileged background (Edenic?) and was plunged into the horror of a cascade of bodies from the fire fights that had to be triaged and treated. She never really recovered from her two year tour. My experience with death came when my wife of 58 years passed due to breast cancer and shortly after my mom of natural causes. I will never forget 2019 and have written poetry to remember - “Oh the Places We Have Gone” and another about my wife’s artistic temperament. Carol and I moved into a house in 1997 (I’m still there) that had been on the garden walk the previous year. Before we knew about the house we took a course in perennials from Tony Tiznik who was chief arborist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL. Our yard was heaven or us and a delight for our neighbors. It takes work but I still get out and plant in the spring. Finally, as a history teacher I came to understand how our founders desired that virtue be cultivated in our people and the Christian faith and the King James Bible was all part of that. I still see remnants of that virtue every time I go out to breakfast with all the older folk in my neighborhood. How wise the words: “. . . if thou well observe/The rule of not too much; by temperance taught, In what thou eatest and drinkest; seeking from thence Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight . . . So mayest thou live, like ripe fruit.”
I have had Kristin Hannah’s work highly recommended to me. Love that connection as well as the connection to the founders and how well they understood our need for virtue for “happiness” or the good life.
Love your description of breakfast with the neighbors.
Monday, April 7 or Monday, April 14 at 4 pm ET both work for me.
I've fallen a bit behind in the reading, but I will catch up and share some thoughts. For now, either meeting time would work for me (assuming that is Monday, April 14th).
I was also struck with the wrenching pain of Eve, in particular, with leaving Eden. We were set up for it in 178-180, when she says:
“while here we dwell,
What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?
Here let us live, though in fall’s state, content.”
Eden was all she had ever known. She knew things would be different, but she was going to make this familiar place a home once again. Yet it was not to be. I felt her pain.
The opening lines sent me scurrying to research “prevenient grace”, which I’d heard of but couldn’t define:
“Thus they in lowliest plight repentant stood
Praying, for from the mercy-seat above
Prevenient Grace descended had removed
The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
Regenerate grow instead”.
Even our repentance is only possible because of God’s gift of grace. Prevenient grace is God acting before I have the slightest inclination to turn toward Him.
Also- only April 10 works for me.
I had considered making a comment about prevenient grace since it is a key doctrinal point! Thank you for bringing it up.
Forgot to mention that I found "The Carcass" to be wonderful. That's probably related to my age, recent retirement, and the fact that I live in a place that is death-denying - Baudelaire brings balance.
I’m so glad! It is an unforgettable poem. Brilliant, really.
Delightful review of Book XI. Thank you.
Loved the title selection. I would have considered, "No despicable gift" as well - Like Adam I can benefit from a reminder of God's largesse (a term perhaps too crass), to "cast out" of one Garden, but in some ways only to a different garden and not without some access to the Creator's presence.
I could try to attend any of those (three?) dates for ZOOM.
Thank you, Peter! I’m glad you were delighted, too. There’s so much each week that I could do and deciding what is often the hardest part.
If it’s the 7th I’d love to come - I’m away on the 14th -
I think I’m five hours ages of so that timing works very well
Hi Karen! I’m behind of Paradise Lost due to lots of travel lately but, man, this section hit home. It just feels very prescient and comforting in light of the state of the world today. Thank you for sharing it with us and sharing your heart about the recent loss of your mom—her flowers are beautiful! As usual, you are following in her footsteps, “trying to remember everything she taught you about beauty.” 🥰
Quick note on the Zoom call…is the second date, Monday, April 7 or 14?
And thank you for reading along and joining in as you are able, Myndi. I’ve enjoyed your travel updates!
I thought of you this past week when I read Pete Peterson’s play adaptation of Frankenstein. Have you read it? I love what he did with it!
NO! I didn’t know he did one. I want to read it!
I'll send you a copy!
The second date was supposed to be April 14 but I could do the 7th as well.
The second date I meant to be April 14, but April 7 also works.