Mark Twain once wryly remarked of John Milton’s Paradise Lost that it was “a classic—something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” Voltaire once dismissed Milton as a “barbarian who writes a tedious commentary in ten books of rumbling verse, on the first chapter of Genesis.” So why read Paradise Lost?

Well, Paradise Lost is by unanimous consent the greatest epic poem written in the English language, an epic rivaled in Western literature only by Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Dante’s Divine Comedy. Milton’s audacious epic, dictated to his daughters in his blind old age, shines a celestial light upon humanity’s deepest questions: why is there evil in a world created by God? Where do human beings come from, and for what purpose do we exist? Is it better to reign in Hell or to serve in Heaven? How ought we respond to evil in the world and in our own hearts?

It is the aim of this semester’s Lectio Humana Reign in Hell or Serve in Heaven? Paradise Lost and the Devil’s Bargain to read and reflect on Milton’s masterpiece, wrestle with his powerful questions, and feel the force of Wordsworth’s magnificent praise—“Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee… / Oh! raise us up, return to us again; / And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.”

Collegium Institute invites you to sign up for the Fall 2025 Reading Group, exploring Paradise Lost. Sessions will be facilitated by Joe Perez-Benzo.

Dates: Fridays, 3:00-4:00pm, starting Sept. 5

Location: Fox-Fels Leadership Hall (3814 Walnut St)

Click the button to register!