Reason in Seventeenth-Century Millenarian England: The Example of John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Abstract

Milton’s England experiences military conflict, sociopolitical change, religious reform, and scientific progress. Seeking stability in a world of uncertainty, a substantial part of seventeenth-century English literature expresses millennial expectations, faith in the birth of a new and better humanity. Paradise Lost is a millenarian work that advocates humanity’s perfection through the proper use of reason. The latter has as prerequisite man’s self-knowledge—within a philosophical context—and union with God, Who is the supreme reason (Logos), within a religious context. Specifically, this article discusses Milton’s definition of human reason and its implications for humanity’s perception of reality/truth, through the examination of specific imageries reflecting four different levels of human reason in a hierarchical order: the lowest/first level, the low/second level, the high/third level, and the highest/fourth level. Imageries of sterility, erotic pervasion, ugliness, restrainment, concealment, sorrow, and power relationships mirror human reason in the first and second levels. Human reason in the first and second levels is corrupt and inadequate to perceive reality because it is based on the physical senses (natural reason). In contrast, imageries of fertility, erotic innocence, beauty, excess, revelation, bliss, and love relationships reflect human reason in the third and fourth levels. In the third and fourth levels, human reason incorporates love and creative imagination beyond the senses to endow humanity with a deep and comprehensive understanding of reality. The discussion of Milton’s imageries of human reason and its redemptive function for humanity is mainly built on Christian philosophy.

Keywords

• Milton
• reason
• Paradise Lost
• millennialism
• amillennialism

References

1. Primary Sources google scholar
2. Anselm, Canterbury of. (1076/2008). Monologion. In B. Davies and G. R. Evans (Eds.). google scholar
3. Anselm of Canterbury/The major works including monologion, proslogion, and why God became man (pp. 5-81). Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
4. ---. (2008). On free will. In B. Davies and G. R. Evans (Eds.), Anselm of Canterbury/The major works including monologion, proslogion, and why God became man (pp. 175-192). Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
5. Athanasius, Alexandria of. On the incarnation of the Word. https://ccel.org/ccel/a/athanasius/incarnation/cache/ incarnation.txt google scholar
6. Augustine, Hippo of. (1871). The city of God, volume I. (M. Dods, Trans.), The works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo/ A new translation. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45304/45304-h/45304-h.htm google scholar
7. Behmen, J. (1901). Dialogues on the supersensual life (B. Holland, Ed.). London: Methuen & co. https://www. gutenberg.org/files/33742/33742-h/33742-h.htm google scholar
8. Catherine, Siena of. (1370/1896). A treatise of divine providence. (A. Thorold,Trans.), The dialogue of the seraphic virgin Catherine of Siena (pp. 19-36). London: Kegan Paul, Trench,Trubner & co., Ltd. https://archive.org/ stream/seraphicvirginca00cathuoft/seraphicvirginca00cathuoft_djvu.txt google scholar

9. Coleridge, S. T. (1836). The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, vol.1 (Henry Nelson Coleridge, Ed.). http:// www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8488/pg8488.txt google scholar
10. Francis, Assisi of. (2006). Praises of the virtues with which the most holy virgin was adorned and which should adorn the holy soul. In R. C. Petry (Ed.), Late medieval mysticism (pp. 122-3). Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. google scholar
11. Homer. (1791). The Iliad of Homer translated into English blank verse (W. Cowper, Trans. & R. Southey, Ed.). New York: D. Appleton & Co. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16452/pg16452.txt google scholar
12. Milton, J. (1641/1847). Of reformation in England, and the causes that hitherto have hindered it. In two books. In J. W. Moore (Ed.), The prose works of John Milton: With a biographical introduction by Rufus Wilmot Griswold, vol. I (pp. 1-34). Philadelphia: King & Baird. http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1209 google scholar
13. ---. (1674/1993). Paradise lost. In S. Elledge (Ed.), Paradise lost: An authoritative text, backgrounds and sources/John Milton (pp. 7-301). USA: W. W. Norton & Company. google scholar
14. Plato. (1892). Symposium. In B. Jowett (Ed. & Trans.), The dialogues of Plato, vol. 1 (pp. 172-223). London: Oxford University Press. https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/jowett-thedialoguesof-plato-vol-1 google scholar
15. Rolle, Richard. (1918). The mending of life. In W. H. Hulme (Ed.), Richard Rolle of Hampole’s mending of life, from the fifteenth century Worcester cathedral manuscript F. 172 (pp. 29-58). Cleveland, Ohio: Western Reserve University Press. https://archive.org/stream/RichardRolleOfHampolesMendingOfLifeFromTheFifteenthCentury/richard_ rolle_mending_Rolle_djvu.txt google scholar
16. Theologia Germanica. (1893). S. Winkworth, Trans. & Dr. Peiffer Ed. Golden Treasure Series. https://www.ccel.org/ ccel/anonymous/theologia.html google scholar
17. Sophocles. (1974). King Oedipus. (E. F. Watling, Trans.), The Theban plays: King Oedipus/Oedipus at Colonus/ Antigone (pp. 25-68). London: Penguin Books. google scholar
18. Wordsworth, W. (1807/2012). London 1802. In W. Duncan (Ed.), Romanticism: An anthology (pp. 548-9). UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. google scholar
19. Asiatidou, K. (2020). The presence of the ‘Zohar’ in Milton’s ‘paradise lost’: Intertextuality and orthodox Christian rhetoric. In Z. Antakyalıoğlu et al. (Eds.) English studies in the 21st century (pp. 1-15). UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. google scholar
20. Black, J. (Ed.). (2002). World history: From prehistoric times to the present day. UK: Parragon Publishing. google scholar
21. Brodey, K., & Malgaretti, F. (2002). Focus on English and American literature. Milan, IT: Modern Languages. google scholar
22. Burke, C. (2012). St. Augustine: A view on marriage and sexuality in today’s world. Angelicum, 89(2), 377-403. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44618600 google scholar
23. Chamberas, P. A. (2004). Foreword. In G. Papadopoulos, At the end of time: The eschatological expectations of the church (pp. vii-xii). Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press. google scholar
24. Colie, R. L. (1959). Spinoza and the early English deists. Journal of the history of ideas, 20(1), 23-46. https://www. jstor.org/stable/2707965 google scholar
25. Collett, J. H. (1970). Milton’s use of Classical mythology in “paradise lost.” PMLA, 85(1), 88-96. https://www.jstor. org/stable/1261434 google scholar
26. Damon, S. F. (1988). A Blake dictionary: The ideas and symbols of William Blake. USA: University Press of New England. google scholar
27. Dockrill, D. W. (1997). The heritage of Patristic Platonism in seventeenth-century English philosophical theology. In G. A. Rogers et al. (Eds.) The Cambridge Platonists in philosophical context: Politics, metaphysics and religion (pp. 55-77). Springer Science & Business Media. google scholar
28. Duncan, J. E. (1957). Milton’s four-in-one hell. Huntington Library Quarterly, 20(2), 127-136. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/3816365 google scholar
29. Grene, M. (1999). Descartes and skepticism. The Review of Metaphysics, 52(3), 553-571. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/20131190 google scholar
30. Grant, M., & Hazel, J. (2006). Who’s who in classical mythology. New York, NY: Routledge Kerenyi, C. (2002).The gods of the Greeks. USA: Thames & Hudson Ltd. google scholar
31. Kim, J. J. (2008). Archbishop John Tillotson and the 17th century Latitudinarian defense of Christianity, Part I. TTJ, 11(1), 130-146. http://www.ttgst.ac.kr/upload/ttgst_resources13/20124-237.pdf google scholar
32. Lefokovitz, L. H. (2011). The genesis of gender transgression. The Jewish Quarterly Review, 101(3), 408-419. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41300146 google scholar
33. Low, A. (1970). The image of the tower in paradise lost. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 10(1), 171-181. https://www.jstor.org/stable/449702 google scholar
34. Myers, B. (2004). The theology of freedom in paradise lost. James Cook University, Queensland, AU. google scholar
35. Newman, B. (1997). Sister of wisdom: St. Hildegard’s theology of the feminine. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. google scholar
36. Sargent, L. T. (1989). Millennium and revolution: Two themes in seventeenth century British utopianism. Utopian Studies, 2, 38-49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20718904 google scholar
37. Thompson, E. N. S. (1921). Mysticism in seventeenth century English literature. Studies in Philology, 18(2), 170231. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4171790 google scholar
38. Tredennick, L. (2011). Exteriority in Milton and Puritan life writing. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 51(1), 159-179. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23028097 google scholar
39. Ward, G. (2010). How literature resists secularity. Literature and theology, 24(1), 73-88. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/23927407 google scholar
40. Yam, C. Y., & Dupont, A. (2012). A mind-centered approach of imago dei a dynamic construction in Augustine’s de Trinitate XIV. Augustiniana 62(1/2), 7-43. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44993092 google scholar