The Alternative Trinity: Gnostic Heresy in Marlowe, Milton, and Blake

by A. D. Nuttall

Overview

What is the creator of the world were evil? What if Christ, the Son, were the antagonist rather than the ally of the Father? Nuttall tracks this subversive theology from the Gnostics of the second century, through its flickering reappearance in Marlowe and Milton, to its full development in Blake.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198184621
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/12/1998
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

A. D. Nuttall is Professor of English and Fellow of New College, Oxford. His previous books include Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure? and Dead from the Waist Down.

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I. Blake: The Son Versus the FatherPart II. Raising the Devil: Marlowe's Doctor Faustus1. Calvinists and Hermeticists2. Flying Men and GnosticsPart III. Milton1. Satan's Shield2. Milton's Theodicy: The Argument from Freedom3. The Garden as Maze4. The Fortunate Fall5. Arianism, Monism, Materialism6. The Invisible Christ7. The Language of Trees: Unstable MythologiesPart IV. Blake1. Godly Nudists2. The Matrix of Blake's Thought3. Blake and Milton4. Antinomian Blake5. Contraries

Editorial Reviews

"Nuttall is constantly illuminating and informative."—Times Literary Supplement

"Nuttall offers some engaging expositions of familiar material and some useful citations of less familiar lore. Recommended for graduate collections and research collections."—Choice

From the Publisher