Discussion Topic

The justification of God's ways to man in "Paradise Lost"

Summary:

In Paradise Lost, John Milton seeks to justify God's ways to man by portraying the fall of Adam and Eve as a necessary part of God's greater plan for humanity. Through their disobedience and subsequent redemption, Milton illustrates themes of free will, divine justice, and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

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How does God justify himself to man in Book X of Paradise Lost?

One of the massive contradictions in this poem that is addressed is the way in which man is given free will but that God knows what is going to happen. We can see this in the way that God predicts that Satan will be successful in his plan to tempt man to sin and to "fall," yet at the same time God in his wisdom and majesty constructs a plan to ensure that Satan is not ultimately victorious.

I suppose the biggest way that we can respond to this seeming contradition is to think about the debate concerning free will and how some religious thinkers resolve this issue. It is argued that God, because he wants a loving and willing relationship with us, his creation, wants us to want to be close to him. If he made us to be pre-programmed robots, he would not have a sincere relationship, as such a relationship would not stem from choice. As a result, he has to give us free will, which means we have the possibility to turn away from him and follow our own devices. Therefore, God recognises that Adam and Eve will turn from him. However, that is not the end of the story, as God, in this recognition, realises that he has to do something about it and therefore plans to send his son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die for the sins of mankind so that they can have a relationship with God in spite of their inevitable sin.

Therefore, God would justify himself through such arguments. Although Adam and Eve do suffer, God is at work behind the scenes to put something in place that will ensure humanity as a whole is able to enjoy a right relationship with him once more.

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How does "Paradise Lost" justify God's ways to man?

So long as Christianity has existed, the question has been asked by believers and non-believers alike: Why does a loving God allow bad things to happen? An answer to this question by a Christian apologist is technically called a theodicy, and Paradise Lost is an extended example of one such argument.

Milton is by no means bashful in this regard. He openly states at the end of the poem's first stanza that he seeks to “assert th' Eternal Providence/And justifie the wayes of God to men.” He wants to show readers why the bad things that God allows to happen over the course of the poem—most notably Satan's corruption of humankind—is ultimately for the best.

Milton does this by drawing on the idea of the fortunate fall. This is the notion that the fall of humankind—which takes place in Paradise Lost after Adam and Eve defy God by eating of the Tree of Knowledge—is ultimately beneficial to humanity.

For had it not been for Adam and Eve's defiance and the subsequent introduction of sin and death into the world, then there would not have been a need for God to send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save humanity. In simple terms, without original sin, there would've been no need for Christ.

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In Paradise Lost, how does Milton justify the ways of God to man?

That's a very good question. Many scholars over the years have concluded that he wasn't very successful. They argue that Milton makes God come across as a vengeful, vindictive tyrant who overreacted in expelling Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. They also think it rather strange, to say the least, that God allowed Satan to creep into Paradise in the first place. Surely God would have known what he was up to? Why, then, didn't he stop him?

A number of critics have also drawn attention to the respective characterizations of God and Satan, noticing that the Evil One is a much more sympathetic character. The poet William Blake once famously said that Milton, in portraying Satan as a noble, almost heroic figure, was of the Devil's party without knowing it. Even if we disagree with Blake's assertion and the centuries of literary criticism it has inspired, we can still acknowledge the fact that Milton's God is in many ways a cold, unapproachable figure, a cloud-dwelling tyrant; Milton's Satan, on the other hand, has recognizably human traits that make him much easier to understand.

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