Research Catalog

Anxiety in Eden : a Kierkegaardian reading of Paradise lost

Title: Anxiety in Eden : a Kierkegaardian reading of Paradise lost / John S. Tanner.
Author: Tanner, John S.
Publication: New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	PR3562 .T36 1992	Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 209 pages; 22 cm

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.

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-198) and indexes.

Contents

Introduction: Milton and Kierkegaard -- Anxiety and the Potentiality of Sin -- The Fall as Desire and Deed -- Satan and Sin -- Anxious Knowledge -- Temptation by Anxiety -- Anxiety and the Actuality of Sin -- Anxiety and Remorse -- Demonic Despair -- Anxiety and Salvation.

ISBN

0195072049
9780195072044
9786610533480
6610533482

LCCN

91035843

OCLC

ocm24630885
24630885
SCSB-14695656

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library