Title: The endless kingdom
First published: 2002
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.
Subjects: Bible, Christianity and literature, History, In literature, Kings and rulers in literature, Literature and society, Monarchy in literature, Political and social views, Politics and literature, Politics in literature, Religion, Social values in literature, Bijbel, Litterature et societe, POETRY, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Religieuze aspecten, Monarchie dans la litterature, Valeurs sociales dans la litterature, Pensee politique et sociale, Politique dans la litterature, Literature, Christianisme et litterature, Histoire, Bible dans la litterature, Rois et souverains dans la litterature, Politique et litterature, Milton, john, 1608-1674, political and social views, Bible, in literature
Places: England, Great Britain
People: John Milton (1608-1674)
Time periods: 17th century
LC classification: PR3592.P7 G39 2002