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Article: Paradise Lost.
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- June 16, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHY READ Paradise Lost? Given its reputation as a cornerstone of the fossilized canon, the case against it seems virtually open and shut. Exhibit A: all those biblical and classical allusions, all the footnotes and latinate English in iambic pentameter, all those irrelevant discussions of angels and devils, good and evil. Exhibit B: John Milton, king of patriarchal literature by dead white males and prima facie guilty of misogyny, offends modern sensibilities. Exhibit C: Milton's attempt to justify the creation story of Genesis -- as his maintenance of a Ptolemaic cosmos -- introduces a host of encumbrances and embarrassments for modern Christians. Exhibit D: Paradise Lost ...