Milton and the Dilemma of Divorce: Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, and Sacrificial Love
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Whalen, Madison
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English and Comparative Literature
- Abstract
- In 1643, John Milton wrote the first of what would become four highly controversial tracts in which he fiercely defended the biblical foundation and support for divorce. Church law concerning divorce at the time was based upon the passages of Scripture in which Jesus told Jewish teachers of the law that the only reasons to divorce a spouse were infidelity and desertion. This teaching of Christ, in canonical wisdom, superseded Old Testament law given to Moses that allowed a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce if she ceased to find favor in his eyes. Milton’s study of the Bible led him to disagree with conventional church wisdom and hold that the Old Testament divorce law was not overturned by Christ but rather that the passage the Church based their law upon was hyperbole, not meant to be taken literally. According to Milton, canonical law had placed an unnecessary and legalistic burden on its members in its restrictions on divorce, and his undertaking to remedy this was a contribution to human liberty – both religiously and politically. His four treatises – The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, The Judgment of Martin Bucer, Tetrachordon, and Colasterion – attempt to restore divorce “to the good of both sexes” by deliberately, painstakingly outlining arguments in hopes to change Church discourse. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce appeals to human reason as Milton presents his defense from a rational standpoint, extrapolating biblical precedents and making judgments based on his theological understanding of who God is and what He would desire for his people. The Judgment of Martin Bucer is Milton’s drawing upon Protestant reformer Martin Bucer who agreed that divorce had a place in the Church. Tetrachordon, the most intellectual of the tracts, presents the four main Scripture verses that deal with marriage or the dissolution thereof. Milton meticulously dissects the Greek and Hebrew foundations of the language to support his claims that the Church has completely misrepresented the purposes marriage and, by extension, divorce, truly serve. Finally, Colasterion is Milton’s counter-response to a pamphlet refuting all of his points in Doctrine and Discipline. These four tracts present a lay theologian intent on rectifying a grievous wrong the Church has done its members: depriving them of their ability to divorce a spouse unless in cases of adultery or desertion.
- Date of publication
- spring 2016
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Barbour, Reid
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 69
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This work has no parents.