Milton and Heresy

by Edited by Stephen B. Dobranski , John P. Rumrich

• ISBN13: 9780521630658
• ISBN10: 0521630657
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

It is distinctly paradoxical that John Milton - who opposed infant baptism, supported regicide, defended divorce and approved of polygamy - should be heard as a voice of orthodoxy. Yet modern scholarship has often understated or explained away his heretical opinions. This volume investigates aspects of Milton's works inconsistent with conventional beliefs, whether in terms of seventeenth-century theology or the common assumptions of Milton scholars. Contributors situate Milton and his writings within his specific historical circumstances, paying special attention to Milton's pragmatic position within seventeenth-century religious controversy. The volume's four sections deal with heretical theology, heresy's consequences, heresy and community, and readers of heresy; their common premise is that Milton, as poet, thinker and public servant, eschewed set beliefs and regarded indeterminacy and uncertainty as fundamental to human existence.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii	(2)
Acknowledgments	ix	(1)
Abbreviations	x
Introduction: Heretical Milton	1	(20)
Stephen B. Dobranski and
John P. Rumrich
PART I HERETICAL THEOLOGY	21	(54)
1. Milton on heresy	21	(18)
Janel Mueller
2. Milton's antiprelatical tracts and the marginality of doctrine	39	(10)
Thomas N. Corns
3. How radical was the young Milton?	49	(26)
Barbara K. Lewalski
PART II HERESY AND CONSEQUENCES	75	(64)
4. Milton's Arianism: why it matters	75	(18)
John P. Rumrich
5. "Elect above the rest": theology as self-representation in Milton	93	(24)
Stephen M. Fallon
6. Milton's kisses	117	(22)
William Kerrigan
PART III HERESY AND COMMUNITY	139	(78)
7. Licensing Milton's heresy	139	(20)
Stephen B. Dobranski
8. Milton and the rationale of insulting	159	(17)
John K. Hale
9. Treason against God and state: blasphemy in Milton's culture and Paradise Lost	176	(23)
David Loewenstein
10. The politics of performance in the inner theater: Samson Agonistes as closet drama	199	(18)
Elizabeth Sauer
PART IV READERS OF HERESY	217	(50)
11. Asserting eternal providence: John Milton through the window of liberation theology	217	(27)
John S. Bennett
12. Milton's transgressive maneuvers: receptions (then and now) and the sexual politics of Paradise Lost	244	(23)
Jqseph Wittreich
Index	267