As a professor myself (a medievalist) I greatly appreciated this lecture and Prof. Stevens’ ability to make an excellent argument illuminating one of the western canon’s greatest works with such clarity and brilliance. He doesn’t lose himself in jargon, and he makes his points so clearly and carefully. Thank you!!
I hope you do a vanity Google and find this. Fourth year, Queens, 1989, you introduced me to Theory. Blew. My. Mind. You'd cuss and get so worked up every lecture at some stage you'd take your sweater off and then take it to another level. You'd never give me an A because I put jokes in my footnotes. I thought that was fair. You made time for undergrads and took us to new places. Thank you.
@@4Mr.Crowley2 Thank you for the kind words. I'm in the knowledge racket myself... well, I was a while ago. I don't quite know what it is now. Take care and be well !
In another way, we are satans ourselves, at least some part of us belong to satan, but we love God, and we despise Satan, just like true Christians despise ourselves. Milton examed and confessed himself through the character of satan.
With all due respect being a considerable book worm I was able to read Middle English Canterbury Tales at the age of 15-16 without much trouble. I’d struggle now. But it takes training.
Cracks me up that most people's religious beliefs come from poems (the divine comedy & paradise lost) not the Bible. Because the Bible states all evil is created by God (Isiah 45:7). Satan is but the punisher of evil. Not evil itself. The very moment one makes Satan evil they create polytheism.
Your quotation of Isaiah 45:7 is taking the word "evil" out of context. He is talking about calamity there, *not* something that is morally wrong done by God, as you are *incorrectly* implying.
@@True_Christian that isn't true at all. The Hebrew words for calamity and evil are completely different. Hebrews 11 plainly states no man has authority to interpret God's word. God said what he meant and meant what he said. God said evil and he meant what he said. You do not have authority to pretend otherwise to justify your own physical beliefs. You're pretending there are two Gods. One of Good and one of evil. That's Dualism and completely against God's word and genesis. Let us not forget the tree of Life, Good and EVIL. All 3 together.
Of course, God is wicked. Now should we be eternally in fear, knowing that we were made by the hands of this jealous, vengeful God, and not of our poor old friend, Satan? We can't choose our parents, even to give your soul to Satan in prayer cannot deny that our flesh is made of God. I believe all we can do is seek eternal life. Am I wrong?
Igni ....our models of god or the creative source of life hss only ever reflected a sort of evolving view. ....when the christian says that god is love he is quite obviously not referring to the hebrew god but to an evolved or realised version.....the idealism of this assertion again says more about our own evolving capacities...gnosis does not tend to follow the rules
Ironically tho if you actually read the bible you'll see God is not a nice piece of work and all scholars who've studied the mythos have all agreed that God is evil and Satan is the good guy or neutral guy who got the blame for all this crap God had made of inflicted so one could argue Milton saw this. And also Antole France in revolt of the angels. Satan is the anti-hero ie like wolverine or batman he's a dark knight.
+T Fal (Ninja Womble) The God of the Bible is all mercy and all justice. "God is love". If justice and mercy and love are not nice pieces of work then your argument holds.
+T Fal (Ninja Womble) Not many academics reach that conclusion. Professor Paul Stevens directly talks about these themes. the orthodoxy is Stanley Fisher's position that Milton is testing you. Satan is not a good guy in this story, he is greek tragedy brought to the christian theology.
+T Fal (Ninja Womble) Yes, I have read the Bible. Cover to Cover anybody can get on the Bible Bus. J. Vernon McGee Through The Bible. All of it. Every chapter Every verse. On most every radio around the world. What we learn in that Bible is God has required this of humans: That they love their neighbor, help the weak, and not live only for their own self. The Holy Spirit that dwells within every one of us is entirely trustworthy and will lead us home to God. The Devil in us says we can blame others (including him) for our sins and our shortcomings. If we believe the Devil in us, then this allows us to lay down the burden of guilt as we treat others like shite. A very attractive proposition. Until we come at last to our death bed and realize our money and possessions are not worth the love from others who needed us. That love we have lost by our selfishness and pride. It is this that Satan robs from us. And it is everything, it is life is love, it is God.
Watching this during the Genocide of the Palestinian people, Haiti,Congo,Syria,Yemen,ecological collapse and a time of such moral turpitude that my soul shudders… I have seen heroes become villains,when words and truth seem to have lost its meaning and there is only the abyss… only the abyss. 🥹🙏🏽✊🏽🇵🇸
