SOURCE: Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. “‘Other Excellence’: Generic Multiplicity and Milton's Literary God.” In Paradise Lost and the Rhetoric of Literary Forms, pp. 110-39. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.

In this excerpt, Lewalski suggests that Milton made use of earlier epic types, merged with biblical allusions, to approximate divine models of heroism and power, and to convey the wonder of the Creation.

It is a commonplace of criticism that the most difficult problem Milton faced in Paradise Lost involved the portrayal of God. Milton indeed undertook to “justify the ways of God to men,” but the problem for many readers—from his day to ours—has been to justify Milton's ways with God. Early to late, readers have questioned the theological appropriateness and literary success of Milton's anthropomorphic presentation of God as epic character. For Addison he is simply dull, a school divine delivering long sermons; for Shelley...