John Milton

John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet, most famous for his blank verse epic Paradise Lost. He is also remembered for authoring the brief epic Paradise Regained, the closet drama Samson Agonistes, the monody Lycidas, and Areopagitica, a prose work that condemns pre-publishing censorship.

Religious Beliefs

John Milton was originally destined to a ministerial career, but his independent spirit led him to give up this career, and, as he said, to "prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking bought and begun with servitude and forswearing." He spent five quiet years at Horton, Berkshire a small village near Windsor where his family rented a house between 1632 and 1640, reading and writing.

Related Topics:
Ministerial - Horton, Berkshire - Windsor - 1632 - 1640

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His discussions with Hartlib and Comenius led him to write in 1644 a short tract (On Education) urging a reform of the national universities; and in the same year appeared the most popular of his prose writings, Areopagitica, a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.

Related Topics:
Hartlib - Comenius - 1644 - On Education - Areopagitica

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Milton's religious position, partially expressed in the treatises named above and in his Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes and Considerations touching the Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church (1659), is most clearly described in the posthumous and apparently unfinished De Doctrina Christiana, the manuscript of which, long lost, was discovered only in 1823. A number of recent Milton scholars believe De Doctrina Christiana was, like his Artis Logicae, a modification and revision of the writings of others, and since it was incomplete, they conclude "e cannot know what other changes, especially what deletions of doctrines to which he did not subscribe, Milton would have made in completing his task " (Campbell, 1996).

Related Topics:
De Doctrina Christiana - 1823 - Artis Logicae

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If, however, De Doctrina Christiana accurately represents Milton's opinions, we would find that his religious point of view is entirely subjective and individualistic; that is, his faith would be deduced from Scripture by the inner illumination of the Spirit, not tied to human traditions. It would, therefore, not be surprising to find him taking his own view on the Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the Holy Ghost, predestination, the creation of the world, etc., as also in regard to practical questions such as marriage, infant baptism, and the observance of the sabbath. What we find in the book is not a complete, scientific treatment of doctrine in the modern sense but an exposition of the clear and universally acceptable teaching of scripture.

Related Topics:
De Doctrina Christiana - Trinity - Divinity of Christ - Predestination - Marriage - Infant baptism - Sabbath - Scripture

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