밀턴의 천지 창조 이야기 읽기와 가르치기

Abstract

This essay discusses how Milton’s story of creation can be read and taught in the manner he suggests in Of Education. Because the creation story includes the origins of humanity and the purpose of its existence, the story can be a useful learning medium not only for Adam but also for readers who are eager to know their original identity. The creation of the heavens and the earth contains the story of providing order, content and light to chaotic, empty and dark material to shape its visible and sensible form. It is at the heart of Milton’s teaching process to provide a proper method for conveying this story to Adam and to readers as persuasively as possible. This method reflects the course of the visible shaping by which God creates all forms of existence in sequence from outline to detail, from simple to complex, from inanimate to animate. Through this orderly procedure, Adam and the readers proceed to the invisible and the transcendental through the visible and the sensible, thus ultimately reaching God the creator. Because the purpose of knowledge and learning is not to remain visible and experiential, but to discover the divine immanence and transcendence in such concrete objects and phenomena, it is crucial to thoroughly search for the divine providence, love and wisdom that are shown in Milton’s story of creation by connecting the visible and the invisible. In this point, human beings are given the task to display their unique identity as mediators who connect the invisible God with the visible creature and who worship the creator as ultimate reality through the creative manifestation of goodness, light and reason. In reading and teaching Milton’s story of creation, the exact understanding of such human identity is profoundly significant in that it can serve as a key to achieving the educational objectives of Christian Humanism, which in Milton’s Of Education encompasses both classical and practical aspects.