[Milton-L] Milton and Sin

[Judith H. Anderson]

Sorry, make that page reference below (388991), 388-91.  Pasting has its 
problems.

Judith

_________________________
Judith H. Anderson
Chancellor's Professor
Department of English
Indiana University
1020 E. Kirkwood Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103



On Fri, 27 Jun 2008, Judith H. Anderson wrote:

> Please forgive my being out of immediate sequence, but I have hesitated to 
> inject the following, for your consideration, into the previous interesting 
> discussion of Milton's conception of sin. I have assumed that someone else 
> would do so, but here it is:
>
> In Christian Doctrine, Milton defines evil--that is, sin--as an oblique or 
> perverse action, which can include words, thoughts, or even the omission of 
> good action. Privation is the resulting punishment of evil, or sin, in 
> Milton's view. Milton, Christian Doctrine, in Complete Prose Works, VI, ed. 
> Maurice Kelley, trans. John Carey (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 
> 1973), 388991, here 391 (I.xi). In De Doctrina Christiana, the Latin reads, 
> "sola eius [i.e., actionis] obliquitas sive anomalia a legis norma proprie 
> mala est": The Works of John Milton, XIV-XVII, ed. James Holly Hanford and 
> Waldo Hilary Dunn, trans. Charles R. Sumner (New York: Columbia University 
> Press, 1933), XV, 198. Carey's translation (the more accurate one in this 
> instance) reads, "it is only its [the action's] misdirection or deviation 
> from the set course of law which can properly be called evil" (391).
>
> Judith
>
> _________________________
> Judith H. Anderson
> Chancellor's Professor
> Department of English
> Indiana University
> 1020 E. Kirkwood Avenue
> Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
>
>
>
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