The Satanic Epic

The Satan of Paradise Lost has fascinated generations of readers. This book attempts to explain how and why Milton's Satan is so seductive. It reasserts the importance of Satan against those who would minimize the poem's sympathy for the devil and thereby make Milton orthodox. Neil Forsyth argues that William Blake got it right when he called Milton a true poet because he was "of the Devils party" even though he set out "to justify the ways of God to men." In seeking to learn why Satan is so alluring, Forsyth ranges over diverse topics--from the origins of evil and the relevance of witchcraft to the status of the poetic narrator, the epic tradition, the nature of love between the sexes, and seventeenth-century astronomy. He considers each of these as Milton introduces them: as Satanic subjects. Satan emerges as the main challenge to Christian belief. It is Satan who questions and wonders and denounces. He is the great doubter who gives voice to many of the arguments that Christianity has provoked from within and without. And by rooting his Satanic reading of Paradise Lost in Biblical and other sources, Forsyth retrieves not only an attractive and heroic Satan but a Milton whose heretical energies are embodied in a Satanic character with a life of his own.

Just before dawn one winter's morning, a hijacked jetliner explodes above the English Channel. Through the falling debris, two figures, Gibreel Farishta, the biggest star in India, and Saladin Chamcha, an expatriate returning from his first visit to Bombay in fifteen years, plummet from the sky, washing up on the snow-covered sands of an English beach, and proceed through a series of metamorphoses, dreams, and revelations.

The description for this book, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth, will be forthcoming.

All the citizens of heaven were excited about the upcoming ceremony. One of their own members, Lucifer, was going to be anointed as chief over them all. Why wouldn’t he be chosen? All others agreed. After all, as a messenger stated, Lucifer was the most glorious being in all of creation—except, of course, for God. But when God began to speak, everything changed. In a creative study that reinterprets the great battle between God and Lucifer and imagines the actions of factions supporting each and the resulting fallout in the heavenly kingdom, Chris Pagano offers his unique perspective while attempting to answer common questions about the devil. Who created him? Why is there a constant struggle in our lives between good and evil? And is God actively involved in the world’s affairs and in our lives? Throughout his examination, Pagano helps us understand how to live with these issues, to find peace within a deeper relationship with God, and to ponder the lasting consequences of these storied events. So Shall It Forever Be shares one man’s perspective on the beginning when good and evil first met while encouraging believers to return to the Bible to search for the hidden truths.

"Readers of Paradise Lost have long been struck by two prominent aspects of the poem: its compelling depiction of Satan and its deep engagement with its literary tradition. Satan's Poetry brings these two issues together to respond to the resurgent interest in Milton's Satan by examining the origins of conflict and ambiguity in Paradise Lost"--

Could spiritual warfare be an essential part of God's plan for each of us? It's a battle that's been going on since soon after the beginning of time. What began as one archangel's rebellion set the course for all of humanity, unleashing a war of epic proportions. The answers to the basic questions of evil are rooted in this battle, as is the significance of Jesus' stunning victory over Satan on the cross. This heavenly war is all-encompassing, and no part of life remains untouched by it. In this expanded edition of his classic text, bestselling author and Bible teacher Derek Prince explores the inner workings of this intense conflict. His accessible, in-depth exploration will help you identify the devil's unchanging tactics, seize your biblical weapons and learn to wage war against the forces of evil around you. Now includes study questions for even more in-depth study and application. Don't wait. It's time to take your place in the battle--and declare victory.

Inside "Paradise Lost" opens up new readings and ways of reading Milton's epic poem by mapping out the intricacies of its narrative and symbolic designs and by revealing and exploring the deeply allusive texture of its verse. David Quint’s comprehensive study demonstrates how systematic patterns of allusion and keywords give structure and coherence both to individual books of Paradise Lost and to the overarching relationship among its books and episodes. Looking at poems within the poem, Quint provides new interpretations as he takes readers through the major subjects of Paradise Lost—its relationship to epic tradition and the Bible, its cosmology and politics, and its dramas of human choice. Quint shows how Milton radically revises the epic tradition and the Genesis story itself by arguing that it is better to create than destroy, by telling the reader to make love, not war, and by appearing to ratify Adam’s decision to fall and die with his wife. The Milton of this Paradise Lost is a Christian humanist who believes in the power and freedom of human moral agency. As this indispensable guide and reference takes us inside the poetry of Milton’s masterpiece, Paradise Lost reveals itself in new formal configurations and unsuspected levels of meaning and design.

This long narrative poem, accessing the possibilities of a lyric essay, revisits the wasted potential of Lucifer's character and redirects his fate.