“The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” Milton enumerates the names of some of the rebels: Moloch, Astarte, Thammuz, Baal, Osiris, Isis, and so on.

However, they refuse to surrender, and vow to make the best of their exile to the infernal realm. Finally, Satan awakes and rouses his companions, and they lament their defeat and the sad state they are in. More specifically, the first book opens with Satan and the rest of the rebel angels sprawled unconscious on the burning lake of Hell immediately after having been cast out of Heaven, still thunderstruck by the almighty power that defeated them. In the classical style, Paradise Lost begins in medias res – that is, in the middle of the action. His subject matter explained, he then proceeds to begin his story. The poem begins with its author John Milton calling for the aid of the Holy Spirit (the “Heavenly Muse”) to assist his writing in order that he may “assert Eternal Providence / And justify the ways of God to men”. I can appreciate its artistic merit, but I wholeheartedly reject its theology. Though inadvertently, Milton’s work has almost perfectly enumerated the reasons why I am not a Christian, to wit: its infinitely unjust conception of infinite punishment for finite sins its inexplicably incompetent deity who allows his omnipotent will to be so easily thwarted its flagrant and revolting sexism in repeatedly styling women the inferior of men in every respect its anti-humanistic outlook that values blind faith and obedience and denigrates knowledge and understanding and the many logical contradictions inherent in the Christian system. However, as a depiction of actual events, I find it not just false, but unacceptable. Milton’s Satan is one of the most three-dimensional characters in anything I have ever read.

Paradise Lost is an epic in every sense of the word: vast and ambitious in scope, powerful and moving in its language, vivid in its depictions, its plot proceeding inevitably from the first couple’s initial bliss to their ultimate tragic fall.

Its sequel, Paradise Regained, tells the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness by Satan and how he resisted the Devil’s blandishments, thereby passing on humanity’s behalf the test which Adam and Eve failed. Published in 1667, the poem tells the story of Satan’s rebellion against God, his expulsion from Heaven along with the rest of the rebel angels, and how he tempted Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit and fall from grace (hence the title). Paradise Lost is the famous epic by 17th-century English poet John Milton. Summary: An eloquent, powerful epic that almost perfectly sums up the reasons why I do not believe in Christianity.

Paradise regained book 4