Spiritual Architecture and Paradise Regained: Milton's Literary Ecclesiology (Medieval & Renaissance Literary Studies)

Ken Simpsons study, focusing on John Miltons 'Paradise Regained', examines the literary ecclesiology of this most subtle and elusive of Miltons works. As Simpson asserts, in Paradise Regained Milton not only continues his critique of the English Reformation by confronting the failures of the Restoration settlement, but he also continues to develop the consistent theology of the church that preoccupied him in his prose during the civil war and Interregnum. Simpson examines Miltons view of the church as a textual community -- a group of participants in the church who are each guided by the Holy Spirit in their reading of the Word. Simpsons provocative and unique examination of Milton and 'Paradise Regained' will become an indispensable study, offering new views of this somewhat neglected poem.