General Introduction
– How cold is it?
– Michial is froggy
– Which one of you is the butler?
– A big load of listener feedback
– Our devoted lovers and our dirty John Donne headspace

Situating the Nativity Ode
– A college senior
– No reputation
– Our shame is deep

The Trinity and the Nativity Ode
– The poem’s orthodoxy
– The substitutionary atonement
– Echoes of Paradise Lost
De Doctrina Christiana
– Subversive literary critics

The Sympathetic Fallacy
– John Ruskin weighs in
– Simile, not metaphor
– Milton’s geocentric universe
– Redeeming nature
– Human beings as forces of nature
– Ad hominems against Ruskin

The Demise of the Gods
– Another board meeting
– The fulfillment of all mythologies
– Fulfillment or superceding?
– Universalism by conquest
– The patristic influence

Structure
– Milton rhymes!
– Non-allegorical rhyme schemes
– Shifting meter
– No dogmatic form

Milton and Dickens
– Well, there’s snow
– Not a feast day
– A useful corrective
– Moloch and the Krampus
– The nativity scene
– Actus Dei
– An advent poem

Other Notes
– This poem has wizards in it
– Infant hands crushing the serpent
– Fulfilling philosophical naturalism

Our theme music this week is Bethan’s version of “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Michial’s number one song of 2013 is Okkervil River’s “Pink Slips,” from The Silver Gymnasium.

One thought on “The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #122.1: Milton’s Nativity Ode”
  1. Thanks for another great podcast. I discovered y’all via Nathan’s comments on Homebrewed and am very grateful for his/your many agitations and insights. Stay groovy and merry Christmas!

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