The Acolyte's Rejoinder: C. S. Lewis and the New Milton Criticism, Yet Once More

The Reception of C. S. Lewis’sA Preface toParadise Lost in Milton Scholarship, 1990‐2015

“…The second largest factor that accounts for the extraordinarily high publication rate from 2010‐15, and easily its most significant event, is the debate in this journal from 2011‐12 between David Urban and the New Milton Critics. If we count Urban’s thematically related article in Appositions (2012) as part of the debate, the controversy comprises 6 articles: a modest, but respectable 16% of the decade’s total publications till 2015.…”

“…Like any intelligent critical debate, both sides have made important points; like courteous ones—though the tone of this controversy has not always been perfectly civil 4 —its opponents sometimes recognize that fact. Richard Strier (2011) admits that Urban “is certainly right that the line about preventing questions has been taken out of context and used in a somewhat irresponsible way” (271), whereas Urban himself (2012, “The Acolyte’s Rejoinder”) concedes that “there are legitimate objections to Lewis’s analysis of Paradise Lost ” that have “challenge[d] me to refine my own position” (177‐78). But to repeat their individual points in a play‐by‐play here, of all places, would be tedious.…”

“…The Question Prevention quote is also the most important trend of 2010‐15 because of its frequency—an altogether remarkable frequency for a specific, quotable passage from PPL. The quote itself appears in seven essays in the space of two years: Urban (2011, 99‐100), Herman (2011, 259‐60, 262, 265), Wittreich (2011, 269, though only in a fragmented paraphrase), Strier (2011, 271), Urban (2012, “Surprised by Richardson” note 5 and “The Acolyte’s Rejoinder” 177), and Bryson (2012, “The Problem of God” 76); and its individual uses within each essay would amount to a total even more numerous. This is significant, for it means that the frequency of the Futurity quote in the same period has now been surpassed.…”