Learning to Stand: Paradise Regained Today

Abstract

abstract:Paradise Regained deals with the testing of personal and political resolve that follows forty days of self-isolation. It thus merits our immediate attention. The seventeenth-century poem that houses a nonconformist argument for liberty of conscience within its narration of Satan's temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is both pertinent and challenging for today's readers. We can apply God's exercise of his Son to current post-quarantine deliberations regarding how we wish to live now—specifically questions of privacy, good governance (for both self and state), shared values, and the future of political engagement.