ABSTRACT
The concept of theodicy, if not the word itself, is conspicuously present right from the beginning of Milton's Paradise Lost, first published in 1667. Milton further contradicts Westminster by denying absolute predestination and asserting free will, lest 'all sins be imputed to God, whilst evil spirits and all the wicked be exempted from blame'. It is hard to tell exactly when Milton arrived at such a clearly Arminian position, but perhaps amid his great personal misfortunes of the 1650s and the decline of the revolutionary cause, ending finally in the Restoration, the danger of 'devil worship' lurking in voluntarist predestinarianism may have begun to seem unavoidable. Thus the potentiality for evil and the first-hand acquisition of knowledge concerning the nature, challenge, and possible avoidance of evil are part of Milton's theodicy richly woven from materials drawn from various strains of historical Christian thought, including both Augustinian and 'Irenaean' elements.
