Spiritual Architecture and Paradise Regained

by Simpson, Ken

• ISBN13: 9780820703916
• ISBN10: 0820703915
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-15
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Summary

Ken Simpson's study, focusing on John Milton's 'Paradise Regained', examines the literary ecclesiology of this most subtle and elusive of Milton's works. As Simpson asserts, in Paradise Regained Milton not only continues his critique of the English Reformation by confronting the failures of the Restoration settlement, but he also continues to develop the consistent theology of the church that preoccupied him in his prose during the civil war and Interregnum. Simpson examines Milton's view of the church as a textual community -- a group of participants in the church who are each guided by the Holy Spirit in their reading of the Word. Simpson's provocative and unique examination of Milton and 'Paradise Regained' will become an indispensable study, offering new views of this somewhat neglected poem.

Author Biography

Ken Simpson is assistant professor of English at Thompson River University in British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Writing the Church	p. 1
Silence and the Word	p. 27
The Priesthood of Believers and the Vocation of Writing	p. 54
The Renovation of Worship	p. 106
Astrology, Apocalypse, and the Church Militant	p. 139
Notes	p. 187
Bibliography: Primary Sources	p. 220
Bibliography: Secondary Sources	p. 230
Index	p. 247
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