Economy of Damnation: Satan's Fall in Paradise Lost

Abstract

The article argues that Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost cannot repent because in falling he lost his libertarian free will and became enthralled by causal chains to the prideful passions of his own divided self. Unlike the fallen Adam and Eve, Satan never receives the prevenient grace that could restore his freedom. He does not receive it because due to his fallen nature, he would never make use of a restored free will to choose repentance. He has fashioned his own hardened nature through the thoughts and actions stemming from the pride that occasioned his fall, and his pride would stand between him and repentance even if he were once again to possess libertarian freedom. God's decree that those angels who reject the Son's rule will fall into a "place / Ordained without redemption, without end" (5.614-615) thus serves more as a warning about the consequences of character-shaping choices than as a threat of divine vengeance (and even less a circumlocution implying predestination of the fallen angels). Adam and Eve, having been deceived by Satan and not sharing his overweening pride, have fallen natures of a kind that would motivate them to choose repentance if granted the prevenient grace that restores free will, which explains why God bestows it upon them. Satan, by contrast, remains trapped in an economy of damnation, as do also the other fallen angels.