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Chapter 5 - “His Footstep Trace”

The Natural Theology of Paradise Lost

from Part II - Imagined Worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2023

Katherine Calloway
Affiliation:
Baylor University, Texas
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Summary

This chapter turns from a broader consideration of poetic works on divine and human creation to the most influential biblical epic in English: Milton’s Paradise Lost. Recent work on Milton has shown harmony between the content and form of Paradise Lost and the methods and aims of modern science. However, an underappreciated strand of scientific reform still needs to be integrated into our understanding of Milton’s relationship to science: a marginalization of natural theology. By working against this trend, Milton aligns himself instead with those scientific reformers who promoted natural theology, providing in Paradise Lost a rubric for applying human science to theological understanding while resisting the anthropocentrism and modern notion of reason that undergirded many contemporary prose works of natural theology. In contrast with contemporaries who emphasized the evidence of divine power in nature, Milton insists that love is the divine attribute most visible in creation, even outside of Eden. A natural theology that discerns divine love is more at home in Milton’s poetic world than in the increasingly reductive material reality on which works of physico-theology drew.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • “His Footstep Trace”
  • Katherine Calloway, Baylor University, Texas
  • Book: Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415231.009
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  • “His Footstep Trace”
  • Katherine Calloway, Baylor University, Texas
  • Book: Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415231.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • “His Footstep Trace”
  • Katherine Calloway, Baylor University, Texas
  • Book: Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415231.009
Available formats
×