Milton's Paradise Lost, the most eloquent, most intellectually daring, most learned, and most sublime poem in the English language, is a poem about angels. It is told by and of angels; it relies upon their conflicts, communications, and miscommunications. They are the creatures of Milton's narrative, through which he sets the Fall of humankind against a cosmic background. Milton's angels are real beings, and the stories he tells about them rely on his understanding of what they were and how they acted. While he was unique in the sublimity of his imaginative rendering of angels, he was not alone in writing about them. Several early-modern English poets wrote epics that explore the actions of and grounds of knowledge about angels. Angels were intimately linked to theories of representation, and theology could be a creative force. Natural philosophers and theologians too found it interesting or necessary to explore angel doctrine. Angels did not disappear in Reformation theology: though centuries of Catholic traditions were stripped away, Protestants used them in inventive ways, adapting tradition to new doctrines and to shifting perceptions of the world. Angels continued to inhabit all kinds of writing, and shape the experience and understanding of the world. Milton's Angels: The Early-Modern Imagination explores the fate of angels in Reformation Britain, and shows how and why Paradise Lost is a poem about angels that is both shockingly literal and sublimely imaginative.

Advances in Geophysics

The one player guide every true baseball fan will want - the leading resource for the next generation of rising stars. The Baseball America 2018 Prospect Handbook is the ultimate guide to the next generation of baseball stars. The Prospect Handbook features in-depth analysis and statistics for 900 players, with detailed scouting reports, recaps of each team's amateur draft efforts, and a ranking of Major League Baseball's top farm systems. The Prospect Handbook is the must-have resource for information on the best prospects in baseball and is a valuable tool for fans, fantasy leaguers, and anyone who wants to know more about the player development process.