Anxiety in Eden : a Kierkegaardian reading of Paradise lost / John S. Tanner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tanner, John S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise lost.

Milton, John.

Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855. Begrebet angest.

Kierkegaard, Søren.

Anxiety in literature.

Sin in literature.

Physical Description:

viii, 209 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Summary:

Tanner draws on the philosophic character of Milton's poetry and the poetic nature of Kierkegaard's philosophy, particularly his theory of anxiety, to enrich and enliven a bold new reading of Milton's Paradise Lost. Proposing that Milton and Kierkegaard were remarkably similar in temperament, life-experience, and ideological commitment, Tanner argues that for both Christian writers the path to sin and to salvation lies through anxiety--that both the poet and the philosopher include anxiety, along with pain, suffering, and paradox, within the compass of paradise. Both Milton's Paradise Lost and Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety explore the psychology of innocence, sin, and guilt, probing the nature of human fallibility and freedom. The first half of the work explores anxiety in Eden before the Fall. This section provides fresh perspectives on such issues as free will, the problem of a fall before the Fall, original sin, the etiology of evil, and prelapsarian knowledge. The second half examines anxiety after the Fall, offering original insights into such issues as the demonic personality, remorse, despair, and faith. Taken as a whole, Tanner's study provides a philosophically coherent new reading of Paradise Lost. Further, though intended primarily as a work of literary criticism, the book touches on matters of broad philosophical, theological, and simply human interest--such as the nature of freedom, knowledge, sin, the self, and salvation. Anxiety in Eden will be of keen interest to literary scholars, philosophers, and theologians.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Milton and Kierkegaard 3

I Anxiety and the Potentiality of Sin

2. The Fall as Desire and Deed 17

3. Satan and Sin 39

4. Anxious Knowledge 68

5. Temptation by Anxiety 106

II Anxiety and the Actuality of Sin

6. Anxiety and Remorse 123

7. Demonic Despair 145

8. Anxiety and Salvation 170.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0195072049

OCLC:

24630885