Experiencing the Fall

I find myself blown away at what Milton tries to tackle in chapters IX and X because it seems like everything humanity has been trying to explain since the beggining of time- why is there so much human suffering and where does God fit in to the picture. What makes it even more interesting is that Milton's paradise lost is an extremely expounded version of the original, in the Bible this whole sequence of events takes place in a few chapters. Granted, I guess everything that follows Genesis deals with the fall out- but still- Milton might have bitten of more theology and mystery than he could chew.

Is it possible that Milton made the fall more complicated in Paradise Lost than the original in Genesis? Or did he (as I think was his intention) help us to understand the fall with clearer eyes? I dont know. Milton hits on so many issues that theologians and christian denominations have been trying to wrap their heads around and arguing about for centuries. Furthermore, he brought up issues I had never even considered such as God the Son instead of God the Father being the one to pass judgement on Adam and Eve. WHAT!? He even throws in the prefiguration of Mary as the New Eve, whoa Milton whoa. I mean... I like it but its just so dense and I cannot wrap my head around the implications of everything that is transpiring. It's hard trying to grasp the concept of God allowing evil. It's hard trying to imagine humanity having paradise one moment and then waking up to the horror that they had brought sin into the world. The denseness of all the possible theoligical implications is a lot and something maybe humanity will never be able to take in. However, I think thats where Milton's STORY can help us. He makes the fall a human experience. Through the poem we are called to feel more what the fall felt like. To feel the seperation from God, sin for the first time, despair at such a dismal future, and ultimately hope which probably does more to help us understand the implications of the fall than any theology. So maybe Milton did bite off more theology he could chew here, but he did a exactly what needed to be done when it came to making the story of the fall a human experience.

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I absolutely love Milton, though I confess he is a bit dense and it takes a great deal of discipline for me to read him thoroughly. I find Paradise Lost to be poetic, entertaining, personal, and intellectually deep all at the same time. I think the main reason I love Milton so much is that he takes a story and concept which is so central and present in my own faith life and in the mind of western civilization and makes it come alive. He adds flesh to the bones of the story in Genesis and gives my religious history a faith and a circulatory system.

If I believe hell exists wouldn't it be nice to be provided with a poetic description of its dark burning lake? OF COURSE IT WOULD. I find myself absolutely fascinated by the description of legions of fallen angels and especially Beelzebub. He gives color to an invisible world and sequence to an unexperienced past. I am almost certain that any Christian, possibly Muslims and Jewish persons as well who share this common story of the fall of mankind, would find some part of their spiritual life enlightened by reading Milton's expounded version of the fall. It is sometimes hard to grasp abstract ideas such as original sin and evil. It also hard to abstract the foundation for a religion of off a few one liners from the Almighty. LUCKILY, Milton appears to also be divinely inspired by The Holy Spirit, so...I guess it is safe to say that God is using him to fill in gaps with the creation story and help provide us with a more clearly illustrated picture of the abstract theological principles present in the book of Genesis. Furthermore, Milton makes everything more personal. I kind of feel like I know Satan and who my first mother Eve was way back in the day before her story was cut down to a few pages but she was still held responsible for...basically everything that followed. Well done Milton, I both appreciate and enjoy of existence's first story.