Synopsis
The centrality of Milton to the study of English literature often obscures the intense debates that rage about his true allegiances. Was he a Christian republican or a committed individualist, a radical, heretical free thinker, or a traditional absolutist? In Milton's Warring Angels, William Kolbrener provides a critical account of the reception and interpretation of Milton's texts. The governing scheme of Milton criticism, the opposition of 'satanic' and 'angelic' readings, derives from a historiographical tradition rooted in the Enlightenment. Kolbrener claims that the privileging of reason over authority inevitably violates the meaning of Milton's texts. Milton's thought is articulated in lexicons which are never fully assimilable to paradigms of modernity drawn from the Enlightenment. Instead, Kolbrener illustrates how Milton's prose and poetry mediate between apparently contradictory positions. They join, without ever reconciling, the satanic and the angelic. By showing how Milton has for centuries resisted tendentious appropriations and reductive readings, Kolbrener explains the continuing critical fascination with this most enigmatic of writers.

First Sentence
In considering the "spiritual architecture" of an England overflowing with "schismaticks and sectaries," Milton in the Areopagitica compares the "great reformation" of a nation to the building of Solomon's temple: "And when every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world...(II 555). Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
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• History > Religious History > Christianity
• Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Literary Studies > 16th to 18th Centuries
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Literary studies: 16th to 18th centuries
Poetry & poets: 16th to 18th centuries
English
British Isles
1608-1674
Christian poetry, English
Criticism and interpretation
De doctrina Christiana
Early modern, 1500-1700
English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
History
History and criticism
Literary Criticism
Literature
Milton, John
Milton, John,
Milton, John, 1608-1674
Political and social views
Religion


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