Becoming Inspired: The (Pre-) Kierkegaardian Author of "Paradise Regain'd"

"Becoming Inspired: The (Pre-) Kierkegaardian Author of 'Paradise Regain'd" compares themes of inaction in John Milton's "Paradise Regain'd" to Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard's concept of silence enunciated in "Lilies of the Field and Birds of the Air," a reading of Matthew 6:24-34 published in "Christian Discourses." Through Kierkegaard, the "Spirit" invoked in Milton's poem as muse is recontextualized, finding in the authorial connotations that the Spirit's presence implies hidden meanings about discipleship and understanding in "Paradise Regain'd." These hidden meanings are, in turn, found to be instrumental in correctly parsing out the dialectics of agency within Milton's writings about resignation, obedience, faith, and Jesus' raising of Eden in the "Wast Wilderness."