Mayra A. Cortes, University of California, Los Angeles
The Acousmatic Trinity: Heard but Unseen in John Milton’s Paradise Lost
How does John Milton understand the paradoxical Christian concept of the Trinity—the doctrine of one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? By reading his epic poem Paradise Lost (1st ed. 1667; 2nd ed. 1674) where he depicts these three entities, I seek to show how he exposes the theological crisis of his era surrounding the belief in the Trinity to be one that was in awe of an acousmatic divinity, a divinity whose voice is heard but whose body remains a mystery, unseen.
To learn more about the Trinity in the medieval and early modern period, I consulted an English translation of St. Bonaventure’s the Commentaries on the First Book of Sentences of Master Peter Lombard: The Opera Omnia: On the One and Triune God (c.1250 to 1252 A.D). I utilize St. Bonaventure’s theological thought to explicate how Milton’s text also reverberates with some of the central ideas that this Cardinal Bishop of the Holy Roman Church brings to light in his Commentaries.
Invisibility of the Father versus visibility of the Son (but of mysterious divine presence), for the Son mainly manifests Himself before Angels and before Adam and Eve like the Father via His voice, a voice that is acousmatic by nature. By the time he composed Paradise Lost, Milton was blind. How then might Milton’s blindness have informed his religious faith and understanding of the Trinity as he depicts it in his epic poem? With the aid of early modern Christian visual art of the Trinity, I help my reader and audience better understand how the Trinity was being depicted in distinct ways in England and around Europe, during Milton’s era, to show how such works of art speak to the ways that Milton portrays the Trinity in Paradise Lost.
Raphael Magarik, University of Illinois, Chicago
Supersession and Historicism in Paradise Lost 11-2
This paper argues that the final two books of John Milton's Paradise Lost dramatically expand and transform the traditional Christian theme of supersession. Instead of being a one-time shift from Jewish law to Christian grace, Miltonic supersession is an iterative process. Furthermore, questioning extremely common accounts of Michael's apocalypse—including, I must confess, my own!—as involving a depressing slide into an ever-bleaker history, I argue that the repeated supersessions of Adam's various ideas about salvation involve his experience and reasoning, rather than merely being delivered by his angelic teacher. Thus, I argue that the much-maligned ending of Paradise Lost contains what Geoffrey Hartman long-ago called a "counterplot," which in this case, involves a new historicism about theology, ultimately looking forward to Vico and Hegel: a model in which universal world-conceptions evolve and progress over time, and do so through a process of dialectical negation.
Seminar Schedule
10:00 am - Coffee and Introductions
10:30 - 12:00 pm - Seminar 1
12:00 - 1:00 pm - Break for Lunch
1:00 - 2:30 pm - Seminar 2
2:30 - 3:15 pm - Closing Coffee and Tea Reception
About the Milton Seminar
This Center of Renaissance Studies seminar brings together interested scholars to read and discuss pre-circulated papers on aspects of Milton studies.
The Newberry’s Milton Seminar is organized by Angelica Duran (Purdue University), Stephen Fallon (University of Notre Dame), Katarzyna Lecky (Loyola University), Regina Schwartz (Northwestern University), Joshua Scodel (University of Chicago).
About the Format
The Milton seminar’s new format includes one junior scholar (not yet tenure-track) and one senior scholar who will circulate their work in advance for the seminars' discussions. Papers will be available in May 2026.
For the next meeting in spring 2027, we will have a Call for Papers on John Milton from junior scholars (not on a tenure track appointment). The call will be announced in spring and abstracts will be submitted online.
Register
This event is free, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.
Register and Request Papers