During the COVID lockdown, I started a book club at church and read through Paradise Lost. My book club consisted of a handful of older ladies, most of whom were skeptical of this selection. Once we started it, however, they all thoroughly appreciated it, though not as much as I did. As I was looking up pricing information for this edition on Amazon I noticed that this book is rated #1 in the category of English Literature, and deservedly so.   

This book is a masterpiece of Western literature. Graduates of NWC or MLC are particularly well-suited to enjoy and appreciate this book. So many strands of our college education meet in Milton’s epic. If you enjoyed Shakespearean grandeur or epic poetry such as The Aeneid or The Iliad, you will find here a seventeenth century English epic on par with either. You will also come to appreciate Milton’s creative retelling of Genesis 2-3. You will probably be surprised by how many of his ideas you have already encountered without knowing they were his.    

You will be intrigued by Milton’s theology. He states that his purpose is to “justify the ways of God to men” (1:26), which might sound arrogant, but it simply means he wants to explain how God’s ways are just. He does this by allowing Satan, God, Adam, and Eve to explain their motivations, which are not explicitly stated in the Biblical texts. He fills in gaps in the Biblical narrative to create one plausible retelling in which everything that happens is reasonable and just even to our fallen minds.    

Milton’s explanations of Satan’s motivations are some of the most fascinating to me, and in some places have an effect similar to The Screwtape Letters. The book opens with the demons waking up in hell, immediately after losing the battle with God and his angels. They are shocked to have been defeated. They consider the possibility or reconciliation, but immediately resolve to wage an eternal war, deeming it “better to reign in hell than serve in heaven” (1:263). They reason that perhaps over time “our torments also may in length of time // Become our elements, these piercing fires // As soft as now severe” (2:274-276). They then ask how they can most harm God, since they cannot defeat him, and eventually decide to get their revenge by corrupting the newly created mankind. None of this is found in scripture, but it seems a reasonable reconstruction of what their thinking may have been. Milton also observes that the devils are not without any virtue: though they are thoroughly evil, at least they are united in their evil aims. Humans, by contrast, are the only rational creatures that live in hatred and enmity with our own kind, destroying each other (2:495-505). This is food for thought.   

The opening of Book Three relates a conversation between the Father and the Son. This is one of many places at which I found myself thinking, “I’ve said that before, and I had no idea it went back to Milton.” Surely, I am not the only one to have imagined a scene like this while preaching, “The Father and the Son were talking in heaven, observing mankind’s sin and figuring out a solution, and asking what could be done to save this rebellious race. Then the Son spoke up and said, ‘I will go and take their place,’ even though he knew how ungrateful we often are and how much it would cost him.” Milton spends about 400 lines at the beginning of Book Three painting just such a scene. Once the Son takes on this great task, the angels erupt in praise of this wonderful plan of salvation. This section mentions key theological themes such as how the Son will need to assume a human nature and how in the man Christ mankind resumes his rightful place over the rest of creation. I do not know how to account for the fact that I have heard and delivered many sermons with a similar heavenly scene. Is it simply a natural occurring phenomenon that preachers spontaneously create this hypothetical heavenly scene in our preaching? Or can this be traced back to Milton? In any case, reading Milton shows that this and similar tropes have a long history.   

Milton’s descriptions of Adam and Eve are hard to forget. He describes Edenic bliss, in which noble Adam and his perfect wife are surrounded by angelic songs as they praise each other before retiring for bed, ending the evening with completely innocent connubial love. Unfortunately, Eve overestimates her abilities. Though warned in a dream of the coming temptation, she thinks she can handle it alone, and leaves Adam’s presence. Book Nine describes the fall, and those pressed for time would be justified in skipping to this book from Book Five (Books Six to Eight relate a long conversation about creation between Adam and Raphael). My favorite example of Milton embellishing the Biblical text is found here. We who read Genesis realize that the serpent could talk because he was possessed, or something similar, by Satan. But would not Eve have seen this speaking ability as a red flag? Eve asks the snake how it is that he has speech. His answer is brilliant. Like the other animals, he was unable to speak, “Till, on a day roving in the field, I chanced // A goodly tree far distant to behold, // Loaded with fruit of fairest colors mixed, // Ruddy and gold” (9:575-578). It was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that gave him the powers of speech. Eve believes this lie, and then ends up thinking, to paraphrase, “If this fruit could give speech to a snake, what could it do for me?” Of course, she eats. When Adam finds his fallen wife, we have a less brilliant, but entertaining embellishment. Adam cannot bear to be without her, and so he also eats. This seems unlikely given the Biblical statement that Adam was with his wife, but it adds a little romance to the epic.      

I have seen some criticism of Milton online. Some claim Milton is an Arian or quasi-Arian. I did not notice this, though I was not looking for it. Others claim that his description of Satan makes Satan out to be a hero. I did not notice anything like this. He does assign to Satan some “noble” qualities such as ingenuity and determination. But we would not deny that Satan is determined and cunning. Anything I found questionable I considered literary license. One does not expect an epic poem to read with the precision of a dogmatics text.    

It’s also worth stating that the language is absolutely beautiful. It is elevated and educated. There are many references to Classical literature, and for that reason I recommend a well-annotated edition. If you, like me, would like to step away from the practical and the immediate, and immerse yourself in literature that is beneficial and enjoyable, elevating your soul while perhaps taking you back to your college years, this is a good choice. I think any pastor could read this epic while on the clock, so to speak, in good conscience.