Paradise Regained

Arguably, the most important theme of Paradise Regained is the one contained in Milton’s title. Jesus has been sent by God to reverse the sinful course of human history: in particular, the young Messiah is seen as a man who, through his superior virtues, will provide a corrective for the Original Sin perpetrated by Adam and Eve. Soon, however, it becomes apparent that Jesus’s work of salvation—his task of regaining paradise for humankind—will meet a variety of obstacles. The fallacies of pagan religion and philosophy, the rise of vicious empires such as Rome, and the heretical lapses of the Israelites themselves are all human sins that must be acknowledged and countered in Jesus’s work of redemption.

In how they choose to exercise (or not exercise) power, Satan and Jesus provide two radically different models of conduct. Satan is drawn to displays of might and luxury, and to seemingly heroic feats. For him, demonstrations of power and prestige—ruling nations, commanding armies, performing ostentatious miracles—are showy and unambiguous. Jesus, for his part, is not content to occupy a state of powerlessness; he simply believes that real power is structured unlike the “power” that Satan worships. As Jesus sees it, power both comes from