The thesis has two parts. Part One surveys the debate on how to define Christian obedience and Milton�s prose contributions to that discourse. In the century leading up to Milton�s prose writings there was much debate in England over how to define spiritual obedience. Civil authorities argued that matters of religion fell within state jurisdiction and that an individual�s spiritual obedience should be subject to outward scrutiny and external control; but these definitions were contested by Protestant reformers. Chapter One traces the issue up to Milton�s contributions.
Chapter Two traces Milton�s thinking about obedience, spiritual and secular, through his own prose writings: Milton defines obedience as a responsible freedom which requires continual critical assessment of authority. In reaction to the political and ecclesiastical developments of his own time, Milton places increasing emphasis on the role of the individual in defining and expressing obedience to God by means of scriptural study and open discussion. Milton argues that liberty is a necessary pre-condition for giving true obedience to God, and this idea comes to the fore in the later prose tracts, which respond to political and ecclesiastical developments that Milton interpreted as threatening the individual�s liberty of conscience.
Part Two examines Paradise Regained (1671), in which Milton advances his interpretation of obedience through his characterisation of the Son of God. Chapter Three shows how Milton links those forms of Christian obedience which he rejects in his prose writing to either Satan or satanic influence. Through his depiction of the Son�s responses to Satan, Milton indicates that Satan�s versions of obedience are designed to distract the Son, and any other believer, from giving proper obedience to God.
Chapter Four traces how Milton�s depiction of the Son of God demonstrates his understanding of the right reasons for, and ways of, giving proper obedience to God. The Son�s firm obedience is a state of mind and comprises knowledge of God through scriptural study, conversation and meditation. This exemplary obedience is motivated by an appreciation for and desire to participate in God�s glory (ie., Creation), and Milton indicates that it is this appreciation of divine glory that enables the Son of God to successfully resist Satan�s temptations.
Chapter Five examines Milton�s final episode, the pinnacle temptation, in terms of the obedience which he has approved throughout the poem. This chapter addresses Milton�s handling of the reader�s expectations for this scene, and the symbolic language and setting of the pinnacle episode. Unlike any other writers on the temptations in the wilderness, Milton invests the Son�s victory (and Satan�s defeat) on the pinnacle with symbolic power by depicting the Son standing in firm obedience to God. Thus Milton presents his reader with the definitive expression of humanity�s obedience to God: the Son�s stand is a symbolic return to the "Godlike erect" stance ascribed to prelapsarian humanity in Paradise Lost (PL, IV.289), and with this firm, upright obedience Milton shows the rest of humanity how to regain Paradise.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/266211 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Learmonth, Nicola K, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of English |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Nicola K Learmonth |
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