Milton's Protestant Individualism
Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:34 am
Milton’s Protestant Individualism
Having now just finished reading Paradise Lost, I do commend it to all as a wonderful and deeply profound book. The challenge is to see through the mythic imagery to understand the ethical ontology – the critique of human culture and its constraints and the indication of a path of progress.
A theme which strikes me as dominant and pertinent is how the defence of truth is generally a matter for individuals, while the crowd tends to follow easy deceptive lies. This theme of the conscience of the individual was of course a key part of the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s and 1600s, in which Milton was a major political figure as a member of Cromwell’s government. The reformers’ critique of the Roman Catholic Church was that Rome had placed temporal worldly power before its duty to implement the teachings of Christ. The Protestants found the focus on Christ a difficult lonely path, consoled only by the integrity of faith and hope and love, and complicated by the need to reject extremists such as the ranters and levellers. This theme of the individual against the wicked world looks to indicate Milton’s own life experience, advocating Biblical faith against the licentiousness of the Stuart Kings.
There are three parts of the book which on my reading particularly highlight this theme of conscience – the response of Abdiel to Satan at the end of Book 5, the descriptions of Enoch and Noah in Book 11, and the description of the Roman Catholic Church in Book 12. In this thread I will discuss each of these points in turn.
Robert Tulip
Having now just finished reading Paradise Lost, I do commend it to all as a wonderful and deeply profound book. The challenge is to see through the mythic imagery to understand the ethical ontology – the critique of human culture and its constraints and the indication of a path of progress.
A theme which strikes me as dominant and pertinent is how the defence of truth is generally a matter for individuals, while the crowd tends to follow easy deceptive lies. This theme of the conscience of the individual was of course a key part of the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s and 1600s, in which Milton was a major political figure as a member of Cromwell’s government. The reformers’ critique of the Roman Catholic Church was that Rome had placed temporal worldly power before its duty to implement the teachings of Christ. The Protestants found the focus on Christ a difficult lonely path, consoled only by the integrity of faith and hope and love, and complicated by the need to reject extremists such as the ranters and levellers. This theme of the individual against the wicked world looks to indicate Milton’s own life experience, advocating Biblical faith against the licentiousness of the Stuart Kings.
There are three parts of the book which on my reading particularly highlight this theme of conscience – the response of Abdiel to Satan at the end of Book 5, the descriptions of Enoch and Noah in Book 11, and the description of the Roman Catholic Church in Book 12. In this thread I will discuss each of these points in turn.
Robert Tulip