Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

John Milton was not only a poet, thinker, theologian and political figure; he was also one of the most astute ‘literary critics’ of the Bible. That is not to say, of course, that the Bible was only a work of literature to him. Scripture was the revealed Word of God. But it does mean that when Milton interpreted the Bible, he did so not only with the thought of a theologian and with the faith of a believer, but also with the sensibility of a poet. For him, biblical theology was inseparable from biblical poetics what the Bible means is bound to how it means – and it is no accident that despite writing a lengthy theological treatise, Milton wrote his own theology most forcefully in his poetry. He lived during a period when biblical interpretation was part of everyday life. The legacies of the Renaissance, with its humanist emphasis on the text, and the Reformation, with its emphasis on interpretation of the Bible, were to infuse common vocabulary with scripture. During the English Civil War, soldiers carried a Bible into battle; before entering the fray, they sang its psalms; before bedtime, parents recounted its narratives; during parliamentary conflicts, proponents cited its verses. The Bible was used in Parliament, in pamphlet wars, in education, in courtship and in conversation to an extent that is hardly imaginable today. As Christopher Hill warns, ‘the Bible was central to ... log in or subscribe to read full text