The endless kingdom

By David Gay

Subjects: Bible, Bijbel, Monarchie dans la litterature, Monarchy in literature, In literature, Politics and literature, Literature, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Rois et souverains dans la litterature, Religion, Milton, john, 1608-1674, political and social views, Politique dans la litterature, Social values in literature, Litterature et societe, Politics in literature, Christianisme et litterature, Histoire, Pensee politique et sociale, POETRY, Bible, in literature, Kings and rulers in literature, Bible dans la litterature, Politique et litterature, History, Literature and society, Christianity and literature, Valeurs sociales dans la litterature, Religieuze aspecten, Political and social views

Description: "The Endless Kingdom studies the dynamics of biblical reading and interpretation in Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. Milton completed these three major poems after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, an event he viewed as a failure by the English people to find a political direction that might lead towards greater liberty.". "The endless Kingdom considers the discourses that favored the restored monarchy in their biblical components. Examining a wide range of sermons, treatises, and pamphlets of the time, David Gay observes how preachers and polemicists used biblical texts to interpret the Restoration as a visible manifestation of the wisdom of divine providence. Contained in the charged atmosphere of what Christopher Hill calls the biblical culture of seventeenth-century England, a culture in which scriptural precepts supported diverse opinions, these texts inculcated uniform political perceptions that conditioned the acceptance of monarchical power in the English political imagination. Milton understood, and was formed by, the historical conditions of this biblical culture. His response to this culture in the years after the Restoration was neither to accept biblical interpretations that sanctioned the historical replication of monarchy, nor to retreat from history into disengaged observation. Instead, as this book centrally contends, Milton represented the Bible as a radically counter-historical text that provides grounds for critical and oppositional readings against the current of historical events."--BOOK JACKET.