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

[Nancy Charlton]

I have two thoughts on reading this thread, started by jonnyangel asking why the list hasn't discussed Judas:

1. Judas--or any other story or character in the New Testament is not the concern of Milton in PL, so however relevant those might be, they lie outside the discussion.

2. Speaking of theodicies, did anyone see the PBS Masterpiece Sunday night, "God on Trial"? It seemed a thoughtful piece, but for some reason there was tremendous static on my TV which drowned out the last five minutes of it. In this play, some prisoners at Auschwitz put God on trial for murder, and the dialog is an examination of issues not unlike those of PR and Samson Agonistes. I'm rather at a loss to relate it to the theodicial premise of PL because I didn't hear it all (and didn't want to watch the 3 a.m. rerun).

Nancy Charlton



Nancy Charlton

http://groups.google.com/group/paradiselostdaily



. . . Till old experience do attain

To something like prophetic strain.  (Il Penseroso)

--- On Tue, 11/11/08, Margaret Thickstun <mthickst at hamilton.edu> wrote:
From: Margaret Thickstun <mthickst at hamilton.edu>
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Knowledge, free will, etc.
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 11:21 AM




  
Jeffrey--thank you for the thoughtful post in response to Michael
Grattan's questions.  In response to yours, below, I think this might
have been a question Milton was asking--he certainly emends and
modifies the Genesis story as much as the bare bones of the narrative
will allow.  But, ultimately, the Genesis story requires both expulsion
and death, and, in real life, humans do die.  A person who believes the
Scripture must be true in some way and is explaining reality can not
completely rewrite the story.  



So your question seems more a question about theodicy than a question
about Milton.--Margie



Horace Jeffery Hodges wrote:

  
    
      
        

        The question that arises -- for me anyway -- is this: why
could God not have created free beings whose choice of disobedience did
not cut them off from the source of life, but rather resulted in a
lesser punishment, e.g., expulsion from the Garden. On this point, I
don't know enough about Milton. Perhaps he thought that a fateful
choice was necessary for a truly free individual, namely, that to be
radically free, an individual must be able to utterly reject God, damn
the consequences.
         
        What do others think?
         
        Jeffery Hodges
        
      
    
  
  
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-- 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 





Margaret Olofson Thickstun
Elizabeth J. McCormack Professor of English
Hamilton College
198 College Hill Road
Clinton, NY 13323
(315) 859-4466


 
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