Milton's strenuous liberty / Tobias Gregory.

Author/creator Gregory, Tobias author.
Format Book
PublicationCambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025.
Copyright Date©2025
Descriptionxii, 224 pages ; 24 cm
Subjects

Contents Milton's anticlericalism, part 1 -- Milton's anticlericalism, part 2 -- How Milton defined heresy and why -- Milton and the Protectorate: another look at the evidence -- How the trouble starts in Paradise lost -- Paradise regained and the rejection of the world -- The political messages of Samson Agonistes.
Abstract "What motivated John Milton? Amidst his shifting concerns, which ones moved him most deeply? These are the animating questions of Milton's Strenuous Liberty. Tobias Gregory advances a new paradigm for Milton's priorities as a heterodox, godly, lay intellectual, arguing that, at the heart of Milton's public agenda from the early 1640s to the end of his life, there lay a concern to maximize liberty of conscience. In contrast to the republican Milton prevalent in recent scholarship, Gregory presents an anticlerical Milton whose real radicalism lay in his individualistic view of the church. Milton emerges in this study as an eloquent spokesman for unpopular positions, and as a poet who, in his late masterpieces, arrived at a broader perspective on the Puritan revolution, though without ever disavowing it as a dearly-held cause." -- Publisher's description
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in other formOnline version http://id.loc.gov/entities/relationships/onlineversion Gregory, Tobias Milton's strenuous liberty Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025 9781009561112
Issued in other formebook version : 9781009561112
Genre/formLiterary criticism.
Genre/formCritiques littéraires.
LCCN 2025025380
ISBN9781009561105
ISBN1009561103 hardcover
ISBN9781009561136 paperback
ISBN1009561138 paperback
ISBNelectronic publication