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jryanlonas 's review for:
Paradise Lost
by John Milton
It's part of the "canon." It's certainly a poetic achievement (and Satan is the best character). It's also the source of a lot of bad cultural imagery of Satan, overemphasis of gendered sin patterns, etc.
But I think it is also Milton's honest wrestling with existence.
Why would God allow the whole of humankind to be born in sin and misery after Adam & Eve's fall Why not just allow the curse of death to work immediately and start fresh? Isn't that the height of cruelty?
He gives a clue to his proposed answer near the end of the poem, put in Adam's mouth after having sent Michael to reveal God's future purposes:
"Merciful over all His works, with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things. By things deem'd weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise
By simply meek; That suffering for truth’s sake
Is fortitude to highest victory,
And, to the faithful, death the gate of life;
Taught this, by His example whom I now
Acknowledge my redeemer ever blessed."
To which Michael responds:
"This, having learned, hast attained the sum
Of wisdom: hope no higher, though all the stars
Thou knewest by name, all the ethereal powers,
All secrets of the Deep, All Nature's works
Or works of God in Heaven, Air, Earth, or Sea,"
In other words, the cross, the great inversion of power (which is threaded throughout Scripture) is the point of existence, not the patch.
An intellectually satisfying answer? Not fully. But it is perhaps "the sum of wisdom." Maybe hoping higher is not good for our soul, even as we long for Christ to make all things new.
But I think it is also Milton's honest wrestling with existence.
Why would God allow the whole of humankind to be born in sin and misery after Adam & Eve's fall Why not just allow the curse of death to work immediately and start fresh? Isn't that the height of cruelty?
He gives a clue to his proposed answer near the end of the poem, put in Adam's mouth after having sent Michael to reveal God's future purposes:
"Merciful over all His works, with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things. By things deem'd weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise
By simply meek; That suffering for truth’s sake
Is fortitude to highest victory,
And, to the faithful, death the gate of life;
Taught this, by His example whom I now
Acknowledge my redeemer ever blessed."
To which Michael responds:
"This, having learned, hast attained the sum
Of wisdom: hope no higher, though all the stars
Thou knewest by name, all the ethereal powers,
All secrets of the Deep, All Nature's works
Or works of God in Heaven, Air, Earth, or Sea,"
In other words, the cross, the great inversion of power (which is threaded throughout Scripture) is the point of existence, not the patch.
An intellectually satisfying answer? Not fully. But it is perhaps "the sum of wisdom." Maybe hoping higher is not good for our soul, even as we long for Christ to make all things new.