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.