Chapter Six. The Art Of Omission And Supplement In Paradise Lost

One of the central guidelines for handling divine ideas and words that John Milton discovered is the dialectic of omission and supplement, a system of concealment and revelation, presence and absence, which characterizes Protestant art on divine subjects. Milton often calls upon a vocabulary of omission and supplement to describe his process of composition and to portray scenes of writing. The technique of omission allows Milton to identify himself as an author with the rhetorical practices used by Christ in the gospels. Paradise Lost allows Milton to investigate a scenario in which God is visible. In Paradise Lost Milton's portrait of the pre-incarnate Son offers an alternative to the image of Christ suffering primarily by concentrating on his eternal heavenly existence.Keywords: Christ's omissions; John Milton; Paradise Lost