[Milton-L] Knowledge, free will, etc.

[Michael Gillum]

Regarding Sin¹s compulsion to move toward Earth, isn¹t this pretty much
Aristotelian physics, where things move toward their natural places, just as
Dante, once purified at the top of Purgatory, rises spontaneously to
Paradise? Like moves toward like because of a ³connatural force² analogous
to gravity. Then, Death is moved by his own hunger and the scent of prey.
Regarding God¹s agency (³I called and drew them hither²), is this drawing by
means of a special decree, or is it the operation of natural law? It seems
to me that, insofar as he can, Milton attributes the consequences of the
Fall to the operation of natural law rather than to God¹s particular decrees
of punishment.

Regarding God¹s wanting Satan to succeed, obviously the narrative of Gen. 3
requires that PL¹s Satan tempt Eve, so PL¹s God must allow Satan to do that.
Perhaps PL¹s God even wants Satan to do  that. But we need to draw the line
there and say that God does not want Eve to eat the fruit.

Michael


On 11/7/08 12:06 PM, "Mitchell M. Harris" <mitchell.harris at augie.edu> wrote:

> I'd disagree, Campbell. Raphael does say it is "higher"--"Differing but in
> degree, of kind the same" (5.490). As for how Satan knows the tree, Jim
> Rovira's post is spot on.
> 
> I also want to join Marlene and Michael in saying that God clearly compels
> Satan to do what he does, but I want to qualify that claim by arguing that he
> compels him by way of his decree regarding free will. Milton best expresses
> this theological idea in Christian Doctrine--specifically in the nuanced
> moments of his sections on God's decrees, predestination, and election, and
> the hardening of hearts. Satan's compelled will (which, according to Christian
> Doctrine, still is a free will), however, clearly does not negate that Adam
> and Eve's free will can remain intact so long as they obey God's command.
> 
> I think these concepts (God's decrees, predestination, election, etc.) are
> expressed more cogently in Book 10 when Sin has some sort of inner feeling
> that compels her to leave Hell and start building the road to earth with
> Death:
> 
> Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,
> Wings growing, and dominion giv'n me large
> Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
> Or sympathy, or some connatural force
> Powerful at greatest distance to unite
> With secret amity things of like kind
> By secretest conveyance. (10.243-49)
> 
> Later, however, God reveals that it is he, in fact, who called them to this
> work:
> 
> And know not that I called and drew them thither
> My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
> Which man's polluting sin with taint hath shed
> On what was pure . . . (10.629-32)
> 
> So in this instance, Sin does not have free will, because God had decreed that
> on the day Adam ate of the fruit, he would sin and die. But, once again, he
> never decreed that Adam and Eve had to eat the fruit.
> 
> Best,
> Mitch Harris
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.richmond.edu/pipermail/milton-l/attachments/20081107/0fb0ec38/attachment.html