The Alternative Trinity: Gnostic Heresy in Marlowe, Milton, and Blake
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Author Description
The Trinity of orthodox Christianity is harmonious. The Trinity for Blake is, conspicuously, not a happy family: the Father and the Son do not get on. It might be thought that so cumbersome a notion is inconceivable before the rise of Romanticism but the Ophite Gnostics of the second century AD appear to have thought that God the Father was a jealous tyrant because he forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and that the serpent, who led the way to the Tree of Knowledge, was really Christ. This book explores the possibility of an underground 'perennial heresy', linking the Ophites to Blake. The 'alternative Trinity' is intermittently visible in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and even in Milton's Paradise Lost. Blake's notorious detection of a pro-Satan anti-poem, latent in this 'theologically patriarchal' epic is less capricious, better grounded historically and philosophically, than is commonly realised.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This work investigates whether a persistent, underground Gnostic tradition—the 'alternative Trinity'—influenced the literary output of Marlowe, Milton, and Blake. A. D. Nuttall, a noted scholar of English literature, examines the historical and philosophical connections between second-century Ophite Gnosticism and the works of these three canonical poets. He argues that the theological tensions present in their writing are not merely idiosyncratic but reflect a coherent, albeit heterodox, intellectual lineage that challenges traditional Christian orthodoxy.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of the Ophite Gnostic belief system regarding the Father, the Son, and the Serpent.
- Close readings of Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus' and Milton's 'Paradise Lost'.
- Examination of William Blake's critical interpretation of Milton's epic.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive history of all Gnostic sects.
- It does not attempt to prove a direct, unbroken institutional transmission of these ideas.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars frequently note the intellectual rigor and historical depth Nuttall brings to his analysis of these complex theological undercurrents. Experts highlight this as a significant contribution to the study of how heterodox religious ideas permeate canonical English literature.
Page Count:
296
Publication Date:
1998-01-01
Publisher:
Clarendon Press
ISBN-10:
0191518573
ISBN-13:
9780191518577
English & College Success
English
Theology
Gnosticism
History of Ideas
English literature
Literary Criticism
