Milton and Augustine: Patterns of Augustinian Thought in Paradise LostThe first complete study of the influence of Augustine--"the most judicious of all the Church Fathers" --on Milton's epic of the Fall of Man, this book presents a detailed investigation of the principal dogmatic concepts in Paradise Lost studied against the background of Augustinian theology. Professor Fiore shows how Milton--unlike most other Puritans, and like Augustine--always emphasized the hope in "God's infinite mercy." Both men were fundamentally optimists. This study concentrates mainly on Augustine's and Milton's teaching on the Fall of the Angels, preternatural Adam and Eve, Original Sin, The Incarnation, Christology, and Redemption. Man, despite Original Sin, "still retained an intellect which could judge right from wrong, and a freedom whereby he could choose between right and wrong." Just as man, like Lucifer, was free to fall, so too is he free to choose salvation. This pattern of free will dominates the whole of Milton's epic, and is, Fiore argues, very Augustinian. Fiore concludes that Milton, like many humanists, Christian philosophers, Reformers, and theologians of every variety in the early seventeenth century, drew widely from Augustine and that such indebtedness gave a richer and fuller theological dimension to his epic of lost paradise and enhanced the meaning of the poem. |
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... means that they were secured from all those pains and evils which are the consequence of sin , ignorance , and folly . The gift of knowl- edge pertained to such things as were indispensable to Adam and Eve to live in conformity with the ...
... mean that every human act is of itself and in itself evil , for it would spring from an evil nature . Consequently , his ... means by nature , a term he often used in different contexts with different meanings . In order to understand ...
... means whereby the Redemp- tion was to be fulfilled . But determining the actual motive for the Incarnation - that is , the soteriological aspects of the doc- trine of the Redemption - presents a controversy that has intrigued thinkers ...
Contents
The Angelic Fall | 12 |
Preternatural Life | 23 |
Original Sin | 42 |
Copyright | |
4 other sections not shown