Pecha kucha

Paradise Lost

Written by John Milton

Disclaimer

• Paradise Lost = Fiction

• Christian Bible = Essential to understanding Paradise Lost

• Bible as Literature vs. Bible as Truth

Who was Milton?

• Lived 1608-1674• English poet, scholar• Most famous for Paradise

Lost, also wrote Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes

• Published political essays, treatises

• Served as an official under Oliver Cromwell

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton#Published_poetry

So what’s it all about?

• Satan and God

• War in Heaven

• Satan cast down to Hell

• Satan plots revenge

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Hell as told by Milton, Danté, and EA Games

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Adam and Eve

• Humans and God

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

The Fall

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

The basis for the story: answering a question

The Question: Why is there suffering in the world?

As it was in the beginning…

• Genesis 2:7-9

• Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood…

• 8Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Is it hot in here?

• 25Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Paradise…

• Is this the way the world looks now?

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

…Lost

• Or is it more like THIS?

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

What happened?!

• Scholars, theologians, and everyday people wanted to know why the world wasn’t perfect

• It seems that because the world ISN’T perfect, God (who these people believe CREATED the world) is cruel, uncaring, or not real

• “Theodicy”

The religious dilemma

• Why was this important to Milton?

• Humanism, Renaissance called doctrine into question

• Necessity for logical replies

So here’s the problem…

• God = omnipotent and omniscient• John 1:1-3• 1 In the beginning was the Word, and

the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

• God = all loving• 1 John 4:8• 8 Whoever does not love does not know God,

because God is love.• John 3:16• 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his

one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So the question is…

• If God is all powerful and loves humanity, why does suffering exist in the world?

Milton’s objective!

• “To justify the ways of God to men”

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton#Published_poetry

• http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/usa/images-3/satan.jpg

• http://artid.com/images/blogs/1255/239130blog_image.jpeg

• http://www.themarriedgamers.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dis_streets_tga_jpgcopy-614x1024.jpg

• http://www.thecaveonline.com/APEH/creation.gif

• http://teapotshappen.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/snake-apple-eden.jpg

•http://coromandal.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/lego-adam-and-eve.jpg

•http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/0b/a1/28/garden-of-eden.jpg

•http://www.expandingthelight.org/clientimages/42883/homeless_and_hungry.jpg

•http://globalsolutions.org/files/public/images/Rwandan-Genocide.jpg