Literary Satanism-2
The shifting view of Satan owes many of its origins to John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), in which Satan features as the protagonist.[82] Milton was a Puritan and had never intended for his depiction of Satan to be a sympathetic one.[83] However, in portraying Satan as a victim of his own pride who rebelled against God he humanized him and also allowed him to be interpreted as a rebel against tyranny.[84] This was how Milton's Satan was understood by later readers like the publisher Joseph Johnson,[85] and the anarchist philosopher William Godwin, who reflected it in his 1793 book Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.[84] Paradise Lost gained a wide readership in the eighteenth century, both in Britain and in continental Europe, where it had been translated into French by Voltaire.[86] Milton thus became "a central character in rewriting Satanism" and would be viewed by many later religious Satanists as a "de facto Satanist".
Comments
Post a Comment