This volume brings John Milton's Paradise Lost into dialogue with the challenges of cosmology and the world of Galileo, whom Milton met and admired: a universe encompassing space travel, an earth that participates vibrantly in the cosmic dance, and stars that are 'world[s] / Of destined habitation'. Milton's bold depiction of our universe as merely a small part of a larger multiverse allows the removal of hell from the center of the earth to a location in the primordial abyss. In this wide-ranging work, Dennis Danielson lucidly unfolds early modern cosmological debates, engaging not only Galileo but also Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, and the English Copernicans, thus placing Milton at a rich crossroads of epic poetry and the history of science.
John Milton's epic story of cosmic rebellion and the beginning of human history has long been considered one of the greatest and most gripping narratives ever written in English. Yet its intensely poe
Few writers have achieved the synthesis of art and idea that was attained by John Milton in Paradise Lost. In that work the poet addressed one of the most important questions in philosophy and religion: How could God, if he is omnipotent and wholly good, have made a world in which there is so much evil? In this book Professor Danielson examines Paradise Lost, focusing on Milton's treatment of creation, chaos, predestination, free will, God's foreknowledge, the Fall of Man and the nature of human existence before the Fall. The author thereby not only lays a systematic foundation for understanding Milton's defence of the creator's justice and goodness but also explores how the literary character of that defence gives it a unique human vitality, dramatic consistency and logical coherence. Milton's Good God is an interdisciplinary study, which will lead the student of literature to a deeper appreciation of Paradise Lost while drawing the student of ideas to a fuller awareness of the
What is the cosmos? How did it come into being? How are we related to it, and what is our place in it? The Book of the Cosmos assembles for the first time in one volume the great minds of the Western
The Cambridge Companion to Milton provides an accessible, helpful guide for any student of Milton, whether undergraduate or graduate, introducing readers to the scope of Milton's work, the richness of
