Adam and Eve in Bed and at Prayer

Abstract

Abstract In Chapter 6, I explore a paradox in Milton’s theological understanding of the liturgy in my readings of his Eikonoklastes and Paradise Lost. In his polemical writings, Milton vehemently criticized Charles I’s use of set prayer, describing the king’s appropriation of set prayers in Eikon Basilike as a form of devotional plagiarism. At the same time, Milton also used set liturgy in crafting his own literary prayers, and appropriated the liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer as the basis for Adam and Eve’s worship in Paradise Lost. I argue that while these Edenic prayers would have sounded like the state liturgy for Paradise Lost’s Caroline readers, Milton in fact intended to strip those prayers of their political and theological contexts by imagining an Edenic origin for these forms of worship. In doing so, I suggest that Milton intended to present these Edenic forms of prayer as having the devotional equivalency of a number of other bodily acts of praise and worship. Milton saw bodily acts such as sex and eating as having the devotional power of prayer itself; to have sex and to eat in Eden was, for Milton, as good—if not better—than formal worship in the state church.