Tom

Why did Milton rewrite Paradise Lost? I suspect for reasons of irenic Hermeticism.

I was actually going to post the very question. Now, Tom, you just need to define irenic Hermeticism for me.

Saffron wrote:Tom

Why did Milton rewrite Paradise Lost? I suspect for reasons of irenic Hermeticism.

I was actually going to post the very question. Now, Tom, you just need to define irenic Hermeticism for me.

Irenic Hermeticism was the peace movement of the 1600's inspired by the mysticism of the The Corpus Hermeticum. A familiar example of such peace literature is Religio Medici. Basically, "The letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." If the important thing is the quality of the inner life, why kill each other over doctrinal differences? Dee and Bruno were advocates.

Thanks for selecting Paradise Lost. I hope to contribute. At the moment, I am preparing some comments on Niebuhr's Faith and History. Seeing how Niebuhr returns to central ideas from Milton, echoed by Bacevich in The Limits of Power, it is intriguing how Milton's eschatology of Fall and Redemption recurs as the core mythic motif for western civilization. Niebuhr picks this cosmology up in his critique of the modern fetish of control. Milton of course was a puritan, a close ally of Oliver Cromwell and the iconoclasts. As such, his great cosmology of Paradise Lost provides a mythic narrative storyline for themes which were dear to the hearts of the American pilgrims on the Mayflower. I firmly believe that a nation retains at its core the ideas which gave impetus to its foundation. Therefore the puritan ideas of holiness and providence have a hold on the American psyche, and a depth of emotional rejection by those at the receiving end of puritanical hypocrisy. Both sides of this American identity can be hard for outsiders and insiders to see. I wonder if we can find in Milton some clue to the fervour and nature of American religiosity? RT

Robert Tulip wrote: Milton of course was a puritan, a close ally of Oliver Cromwell and the iconoclasts.

Robert, Milton outgrew the legalism of the Puritans, Cromwell, and the iconoclasts.

Thomas Hood wrote:Irenic Hermeticism was the peace movement of the 1600's inspired by the mysticism of the The Corpus Hermeticum. A familiar example of such peace literature is Religio Medici. Basically, "The letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." If the important thing is the quality of the inner life, why kill each other over doctrinal differences? Dee and Bruno were advocates.

Tom, you are such an esotericist! Good on you. Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake in Rome for his belief that the one true religion came from Egypt. John Dee was the astrologer to Queen Elizabeth and a Christian Platonist. Regarding irenic hermeticism, Isaac Newton was possibly the exemplar, with his translation of the Emerald Tablets of Thoth.

Robert Tulip wrote:Milton of course was a puritan, a close ally of Oliver Cromwell and the iconoclasts. As such, his great cosmology of Paradise Lost provides a mythic narrative storyline for themes which were dear to the hearts of the American pilgrims on the Mayflower. I firmly believe that a nation retains at its core the ideas which gave impetus to its foundation. Therefore the puritan ideas of holiness and providence have a hold on the American psyche, and a depth of emotional rejection by those at the receiving end of puritanical hypocrisy. Both sides of this American identity can be hard for outsiders and insiders to see. I wonder if we can find in Milton some clue to the fervour and nature of American religiosity?

Robert, I agree that fundamental themes at the foundation guide development, but as can be seen by looking at the back of the $1 bill, Miltonic depth has a place too, though often overlooked or denied. American Transcendentalism (Walden) is an expression of this deeper side.

Tom

Thomas Hood wrote:

Robert Tulip wrote: Milton of course was a puritan, a close ally of Oliver Cromwell and the iconoclasts.

Robert, Milton outgrew the legalism of the Puritans, Cromwell, and the iconoclasts.

Yet Milton was in a way the ultimate iconoclast - his propaganda book Eikonoklastes was written in his capacity as ideator for Cromwell. This smashing of images picks up the puritan reading that the Mosaic commandment not to make graven images has been broken by the aesthetic focus of the roman church. It is then ironic that Paradise Lost lacked wide readership until an illustrated version was published.

So would America be seen by Milton as the Paradise alluded to in the epic poems title, or is it more a theological based idea than an earthly territory, or a mixture? Did not the great epics he compares his work to often blur the distinction between this world and an alternative universe of the gods??

Robert Tulip wrote:Yet Milton was in a way the ultimate iconoclast - his propaganda book Eikonoklastes was written in his capacity as ideator for Cromwell. This smashing of images picks up the puritan reading that the Mosaic commandment not to make graven images has been broken by the aesthetic focus of the roman church.

The Eikon in Eikonoklastes was Charles I. Eikonoklastes was written at government direction to justify Charles's execution and was not (I think) meant to justify vandalizing churches, and it may not represent Milton's thinking at that time.

Eikonoklastes was written in 1649, the first version of Paradise Lost completed in 1667. Milton had had plenty of time and experience to change his mind about many things, and apparently did.

Tom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eikonoklastes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_lost

Grim wrote:So would America be seen by Milton as the Paradise alluded to in the epic poems title, . . .

I think Milton would have opposed the illiberal Puritan theocracy in New England.

Tom