Milton's House of God: The Invisible and Visible Church

Abstract

In House of Stephen R. Honeygosky examines the ecclesiastical centre of a representative sampling of John Milton's prose written throughout his life. Inter-relating this body of literature with Reformation and post-Reformation history and theology, Honeygosky argues that for Milton the two major dimensions of (the invisible and visible) have an inextricable, ongoing, intersecting-though-not-equivalent relationship. He aims to show that it is the dynamic interaction between the two from which Milton's entire ecclesiology proceeds. House of God explores in depth Milton's concept of and its relation to the True Church, which he came to believe was always invisibly and spiritually gathered because of its mystic incorporation with Christ. Honeygosky demonstrates how Milton takes such traditional ecclesiological words as Scripture, Sacrament, heresy and holiness, rejects their standard usage, then empties the terms of their expected import before renovating and reappropriating them once again. The author concludes that the fundamental Miltonic definition of church is the individual, believing reader of sacred texts who has become an interfusion of sacred place, text and action - a veritable House of God. Thus, Milton's ecclesiology results in a new mythic form derived from, and designated for, mid-17th century English culture. The believing and reading individual is the most basic House of God, the embodied consolidation of Church and Scripture and Sacrament.