Reason and Choice in "Paradise Lost"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, in John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost", salvation is undeniably God's will (since He is omnipotent), but it is achieved by the intercession of an autonomous being, the Son, who has free will and chooses to do good by offering himself to save man. The paper further explains that this view of salvation is anti-trinitarian because the trinitarian view holds that Christ essentially is God, co-eternal and co-equal, making salvation inevitably a product of God's grace and will. The paper lookds at how Milton's anti-trinitarian differentiation functions as a crucial part of Milton's theme, guaranteeing that while reason and choice are the means through which God's creatures can fall, they are also precisely the tools for achieving redemption.

From the Paper:

"When God first speaks to the Son in Book III, He precisely deals with the nature of the freedom He has given His creatures. With regard to His creation, He says "[ ... ] I made him just and right/ Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall" (Lines 98-9). He adds that all the "ethereal powers and Spirits" were created in this way, and that each makes his choice to either stand or fall. God further seems to "justify" His reasons for creating man free, when He asks what man's allegiance would mean if it were forced. How would it be possible to praise man, God asks, if he was just doing something compulsory and involuntary? He then concludes that were they not free, their will and reason would be robbed, become "useless and vain," used merely passively, to serve "necessity," instead of Him. This notion of passivity is central; when one has free will every choice is an active, voluntary and accountable decision despite circumstances. This is why Milton is careful to defend God's omnipotence in light of His foreknowledge. "

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