LANGUAGE, POWER, AND DIVINE ORDER IN THE WORKS OF JOHN MILTON

Abstract

 This paper examines the intricate relationship between language, power, and divine order in the works of John Milton, with a primary focus on Paradise Lost, Areopagitica, and De Doctrina Christiana. Milton’s oeuvre consistently presents language as both a medium of divine truth and a site of political struggle. Through depictions of heavenly discourse, demonic rhetoric, and human reason, Milton constructs a theological-political vision in which linguistic authority becomes inseparable from divine sovereignty. At the same time, his humanist commitments position language as the instrument through which individuals access truth and participate in moral agency. By analyzing Milton’s conception of language as a force capable of shaping cosmological hierarchy and earthly governance, this paper argues that Milton sees linguistic power as central to the maintenance—and at times, the disruption—of divine order.