《失乐园》:恢复“一个远为快乐的乐园”

Paradise Lost:Regaining a“Paradise……Happier Far”

在弥尔顿的《失乐园》中,亚当、夏娃在堕落前的信仰因未经历练而不够坚实,这从夏娃崇拜和圣经式亚当等现象即可看出。在堕落后,经过内心激烈的天人交战和真诚的忏悔后,亚当消除了夏娃崇拜,蜕变为偶像破坏者和弥尔顿式亚当;夏娃则通过自我祛魅与降卑,开启了与上帝的和解。两人的信仰也变得虔诚、稳固、成熟。但信仰的重建并非依赖于教会,而是圣灵。他们丧失了外在的乐园,却恢复了远为快乐的、真正宗教的内心乐园。

In Milton's Paradise Lost,Adam and Eve's prelapsarian faith was not solid because of their lack of experience,as can be detected from the phenomena of Eve idolatry and the biblical Adam.After the fall,with the intense internal struggle and sincere repentance,Adam eliminated Eve idolatry,and metamorphosed into an iconoclast as well as the Miltonic Adam;and Eve,through self-disenchantment and humbling herself,initiated the reconciliation with God.Their faith also became pious,stable and mature.But the reconstruction of faith depended on the Holy Spirit instead of the church.They lost the external paradise,but regained the far happier internal paradise of the true religion.