Chapter Themes of Paradise Lost - Study Guide by John Milton

and the workings of salvation. That is not to say that the Calvinist theologians formulated the concept of Predestination; the doctrine is not explicitly taught in the Bible, though there are numerous allusions and adumbrations towards the concept in books of the Old and the New Testament.

Predestination had been a particularly controversial issue since the late Roman period, with the Pelagian controversy. Through the medieval period the concept received attention from the Schoolmen, but it was fully revived during the Reformation. There was debate and disagreement within the Lutheran faith over the doctrine, but it was Jean Calvin who gave new vitality to the doctrine and his ‘disciple’, Theodore Beza, made it the cornerstone of the Calvinist faith. It was imposed on the United Provinces (the modern Netherlands) by the Synod of Dort (1618-19), and the Westminster Assembly of Divines imposed the doctrine on the Church of England in 1647. The Assembly declared that after the Fall, God does not will the salvation of all men, and that Christ died only for the elect.

During the early seventeenth century in the United Provinces there emerged a strong challenge to the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination with Arminianism. The Synod of Dort condemned the Arminians and their theology, principally on the grounds that the Jacobus Arminius’s interpretation of salvation was antithetical to Calvinism. Arminius argued for the role of human Free Will, that mankind could in fact have some part to play in salvation.

The doctrine of salvation was the controversial area that Milton could express his beliefs about openly. The process of Arminian salvation is expounded in both the exchange between the Father and the Son, and the Father’s speech (III.173-202), and on a practical level, is demonstrated by Adam and Eve. The Father’s position is essentially Ramist – he first divides those to whom "peculiar grace" extends unto, and then further distinguishes the rest as those who hear his call. This second group is subdivided by its response to God’s call: those who hear and respond, and those who do but choose to ignore it. ‘Peculiar’ is a word that is frequently found in Calvinist discourse – e.g. Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion notes God reserves "some peculiar thing concerning his electes". For Milton, salvation is a process; it requires the interaction of God and man – that is, man must show God the endurance of his faith, and God take mercy and deem his faith worthy of divine enlightenment.

With the story of Satan and his retinue of fallen angels, Milton demonstrates the process of moral and spiritual degeneration. This serves as a pendant to the process of salvation, the path to exclusion. The case of the fallen angels replicates the Calvinist doctrine of reprobation; that however, for Milton, does not apply to humankind. The story of Adam and Eve exemplifies the Arminian concept of regeneration. Adam’s monologue and his dialogue with Eve in the tenth book (X.720-) reveals the workings of this process.

Adam initially poses a series of questions and exclamations in which he is searching for reproach for God’s justice and recognition of his own liability. Hence, Adam asks: ‘Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay | To mould me man…?’ (X.743-4) before realizing that, ‘… Inexplicable | Thy justice seems; yet to say truth, too late | I thus contest’ (X.754-6). Adam however struggles with the knowledge that he has condemned mankind.

"Ah, why should all mankind

For one man’s fault thus guiltless be condemned,

If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,

But all corruption…"

(X.822-5)

The immediate outcome of this is Adam’s recognition and acknowledgement of his own sinfulness. Adam’s initial presumptions about God’s justice are not repudiated until he debates with Eve rather than originating