L’image fondatrice est-elle matérielle ? Le débat iconomaque en Angleterre et la théologie de l’image dans le Paradis Perdu de John Milton (1674)

Abstract

This article explores the relations between iconoclastic practices, theology of images and poetic writing in seventeenth century Anglican England. It argues that for poets as different as John Donne and John Milton, the iconoclastic practices, deriving from a radical Calvinist interpretation of the dogmas of Trinity and Incarnation are far from hindering the representation of the divine, in poetry. These writers who are both theologians and poets found their poetic enterprise on a specific conception of the Son as the first visible divine image. The great originality of Milton rests on his antitrinitarian and materialist thought that enables him to conceive the Son not incarnate, as the first visible image of God, from whom Creation and his great epic, Paradise Lost, both descend.

Keywords

• iconoclasm
• image
• theology
• poetry
• John Milton