The poetic effectiveness of Milton's God is a fundamental critical issue in Paradise
Lost, and the thesis addresses this concern by first surveying the various representations of
God contained in the Hebrew scriptures. To speak of the biblical God, one must first
understand the tremendous diversity o f his portrayals: he meets with some people in human
form, and with others as a voice, a light, or an awesome presence. Milton's God shares less
with the God o f Genesis than he does with the God of the prophets; yet Milton's
representation demonstrates that though Eden will be lost, God will continue to manifest
himself to those who seek his face. The cosmology of the epic reveals both the immensity o f
creation and the intimacy o f its Creator, since the entire world is filled with the glory o f God,
and yet the garden where Adam and Eve live is an archetypal sanctuary and their bower a
type of Inner Temple. Milton's justification o f God's ways rests upon the timelessness of
God; events that appear anachronistic at first are used to establish a context that looks beyond
the strict limits of human time. On the one hand, the Incarnation, Resurrection, and
Apocalypse are separate events that have not yet come to pass; but on the other hand, Milton
shows how these events are simultaneously present and completed in God's presence. From
God's throne, we participate in a cosmic perspective where the categories of past, present,
and future are compressed into one time: we are before and beyond time. Such a transcendent
perspective engenders a powerful truth: before Adam and Eve have been tempted, God's
grace and mercy have found them out and they have been restored. Though Eden must be
lost, the paradise of God's presence will remain. Adam and Eve will fall and the legacy of
their rash act will be paradoxically for all time, but not forever. God will restore his people
and wipe away their tears, and, in the context of Milton's depiction of God, that time of
redemption is now. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/15835 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Keim, Charles Andrew |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 13344999 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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