Paper: The Felix Culpa: Giving the Devil his Due

[jhameia]

Felix culpa, Latin.
Commonly translated as "happy fault", or, Biblically speaking, "Fortunate Fall".

In John Milton's Paradise Lost, much scorn and blame is placed on Satan, the devil, the Adversary, the prince of darkness and the king of Hell (who gave rise to Sin, Death, and Ozzy Osbourne), for tempting Adam and Eve into eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and thus causing our ultimate ancestors to fall from their "seat of bliss", Eden. This Fall is seen as a negative thing in many traditions of older Christian cultures; only recently has the Gnostic sects' way of seeing the Fall as a positive event given rise again beginning with William Blake in his work, the Marriage of Heaven and Hell. While it is true that Satan, or the serpent, in many traditions caused the Fall through Eve, especially in Paradise Lost, it must be pointed out that a grudge cannot be held against the Devil indefinitely for causing the Fall.

Holistically speaking, there were many circumstances surrounding the Fall, before, during and after. This Fall had Fate inscribed within its framework a very classical problem concerning fate from the beginning, had a catalyst more complex than a simple dastardly creature of evil, and had an effect that must be acknowledged to have given humanity a chance to truly taste freedom and exercise agency.
The problem of Free Will versus the idea of Fate has always been a paradox that many religions have tried to overcome through reconciling the two, or by ignoring them altogether. For example, in Buddhism, there's the idea of Karma, which is an alterable sense of fate. The Greeks believed in gods so petty, Fate was set in stone and horrible things happened to people who probably did not deserve anything. Neil Forsyth discusses the classical dilemma of evil coinciding with the existence of an omnipotent, omnipresent and loving God, citing Epicurus:

God either wishes to take away evils, and is unable, or He is able, and is unwilling, or he is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and unable, He is feeble... if He is able and unwilling, he is envious... if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils, or why does He not remove them?

This well-worded musing remains the bane of theologians, and is easily crossed out by Occam's Razor (Forsyth 522). But the fact remains: if Fate is the framework within which all humans and beings within God's universe operate, then Satan cannot truly be blamed completely for the felix culpa. He is therefore not a transgressor, nor an adversary (even though he may fancy himself so), but an accomplice, or at the very least, an unknowing player within these bounds. The idea that Fate is the framework for all beings is also problematic as it challenges God's omnipotence and intentions towards His own creations; as evident in Book III of Paradise Lost, Milton's Almighty is well-aware of the transgression that will happen: "Man falls deceived / By th'other first" (III 130 - 131). He was also aware of the revolt that Satan would lead, but allowed it to happen: "If I foreknew / foreknowledge had no influence on their fault" (III 117 - 118). Giving both angels and Man free will to act upon their own agency, God has relinquished responsibility to Satan and Man - for Satan to act out his temptation and for Man to transgress in weakness. The presumptuous would claim that God's inaction was part of a Grand Plan - this may be true, but if it is a plan, then we cannot hold it against Satan for playing his part. Some other presumptuous would claim that God's inaction was a sign of limitation - this may also be true, but it assumes that God can be understood through human terms. Perhaps Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett put this concept best in the mouths of an angel and a devil:

"It's the Great Plan," said the Metatron flatly. "You are well aware. There shall be a world last six thousand years and it will conclude with-"
"Yes, yes, that's the Great Plan all right," said Aziraphale. He spoke politely and respectfully, but with the air of one who has just asked an unwelcome question at a political meeting and won’t go away until he gets an answer. "I was just asking if it's ineffable as well. I just want to be clear on this point.
"It doesn't Matter!" snapped the Metatron. "It’s the same thing, surely!"
Surely? thought Crowley. They don't actually know. He started to grin like an idiot.
"So you're not one hundred percent clear on this?" said Aziraphale.
"It’s not given to us to understand the ineffable Plan," said the Metatron, "but of course the Great Plan-"
"But the Great Plan can only be a tiny part of the overall ineffability," said Crowley. "You can't be certain that what's happening right now isn't exactly right, from an ineffable point of view." (Gaiman & Pratchett 335)

This excerpt points out that God is unknowable, ineffable in their terms, to all those that serve beneath Him. Milton only wrote his version of the story, but it holds no bars against Satan's bid for exoneration in the long run.

Moving on to Satan him/her/it-self (we shall use the pronoun "he" for expediency), the catalyst himself deserves no real forgiveness from humanity, but hardly warrants eternal enmity. To begin with, Satan is already punished by God, having been relegated to the unenviable position of the King of Hell, and leader of all the other fallen angels. He is deceitful, violent, manipulative and vengeful; all of which are conditions of the human being in desperate and negative circumstances. Satan is arguably the most human character of Paradise Lost, having come into awareness of his transgression and punishment before Adam and Eve. Despite his pride and stubborn tenacity to ruin Mankind, Satan still has his own dilemmas and moments of self-doubt, best personified within these lines:

... Is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
None left but by submission and that word
Disdain forbids me and my dread of shame
Among the spirits beneath whom I seduced
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit, boasting that I could subdue
Th' Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vain,
Under what torments inwardly I groan
While they adore me on the throne of Hell... (IV 79 - 89)

His angst-filled soliloquy is recognizable within those who have fallen - even Adam echoes certain strains of lament (McColgan 8) when he has fallen.
One may argue that despite his tyranny, this monologue shows that Satan does not have the emotional strength to be the ideal Machiavellian prince. Now, it is true that Satan does not learn anything from his own Fall, and his boldness tempers his sense of innovation. It is also true that he is wilfully blind towards the omnipotence of God and he is a slave to his passionate nature (Reibling n.p.). Yet his transgression lends to him qualities that are quite heroic in their absurdity, and these qualities carry over to the other fallen angels. Despite their less-than-ideal status, the fallen angels rise from their prone positions on the ground and begin to decide what to do with their new position. The decision on their course of action evolves from an all-out battle with God (suggested by Moloch, II 51-105), to accepting their fate (suggested by Belial, II 119 - 225), to making the best of what they have (suggested by Mammon, II 229 - 283), and finally, the decision to really screw over God by screwing over Man (the final suggestion by Beelzebub, II 345 - 378). Although the other devils no longer appear in the epic, Satan's absurd characteristics persist, and as G. R. Hamilton observes, they "are not quelled by danger, or pain of body, or torment of mind; they are proof against all things but one, the revelation of God's omnipotence" (Hamilton 13). Rarely, if ever, is the idea of giving up mentioned within the text of Paradise Lost, although it seems that it would be the wiser decision to do so. This absurd desire to carry on fighting gives Satan a heroic quality that can hardly be dismissed as foolish (14). This "valiant absurdity" (Beagle 141), to borrow a phrase from Peter S. Beagle, means that Milton's Satan could not possibly represent that ideal Machiavellian prince, as Reibling points out, but on the other hand, Hell does not need an ideal prince to survive and so far, it has seemed that there is no requirement for an ideal leader's guidance in carving out an existence as a place of fear in Biblical literature. Being a place of chaos, unending change and misery, compared to the static happiness of the Almighty's Heaven, Hell has minions that are capable of individual action - left to their own devices, the devils begin pursuing their own interests: "By false presumptous hope the rangèd powers / Disband and wand'ring each his several way / Pursues as inclination or sad choice" (II 522 - 524). Neither Satan nor devils are in any ideal land, more between a rock and a hard place, but none of them give up the idea of living either. They may live by virtue of defiance, eking out an immortal existence designed by mischief and petty cruelty, but this does not cancel out the idea that they still do exist. Some doctrines argue that those most wretched are those who are in need of most pity – Satan, being most wretched of all, has brought down the ire of God upon his own head and while he certainly inspires fear (and should!), he does not deserve the judgement of humanity; such a duty is reserved for God alone.

Humanity, that section of Creation most profoundly affected by Satan, also suffer consequences for their transgression: Adam and Eve are cast out from Eden, and Satan sets Sin and Death to prey upon them (X 356 - 409). In these circumstances, Satan is like Prometheus who defies Zeus to bring fire to humanity. Satan has been compared to Prometheus many times by many critics (Werblowsky) despite his ill intentions, and the overall effect is the same: Mankind is punished for the gift for transgressing, and the one who brought about the transgression is cursed. But to wholly condemn Satan for bringing ill to Adam and Eve would be unfair by modern standards that prize personal responsibility of humans to act upon their own agency, which both Adam and Eve do by first transgressing. Firstly, Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, but the fruit is not shoved into her face like in her dream caused by Satan (V 82 - 83). After she eats this fruit, she realizes her own sin and the possible consequences: that she would be cast out from Eden and lose Adam (IX 828 - 830). Therefore she makes the conscious decision to have Adam share in her fall (830 - 833). This is a selfish move on her part, but one must remember that Eve was for Adam made - her first responsibility is not necessarily towards God, but to Adam, and to exist without Adam would be to no kind of existence at all. Adam, for his part, makes good his vow to love Eve, and he falls with her, awing her with his show of love (IX 955 - 963). This show of nobility cannot be dismissed, but it does not come without its problems. Adam, being only human, falls into a state of despair and hopelessness as he realizes the full force of what he has done in the name of love for Eve. He laments the loss of Eden (X720 - 844), and when Eve approaches, he rejects her, turning her away until she begs forgiveness from Adam and offers herself as a sacrifice "that all / the sentence from [Adam's] head removed may light / on [Eve]" (X 932 - 935). These words initiate a change in Adam, moving him from remorse and anger to reconciliation - "let us no more content / ... but strive / In offices of love how we may light'n / Each other's burden in our share of woe" (X 958 - 961). This is a crucial turning point for both Adam and Eve as both move out of psychological, spiritual and physical isolation and find in each other an interdependence that results in a stronger partnership (McColgan 12). Moreover, through dialogue with Eve, Adam finds a reason to endure despite the Fall: when Eve suggests they both seek Death, Adam points out that the Adversary who caused the Fall would escape punishment, and they would suffer more for having rejected the gift of life from God through suicide.
Then there is the spirit in Adam's words that it all would not be so bad after all:

"... We expected
Immediate dissolution which we thought
Was meant by death that day when, lo! to thee
Pains only in childbearing were foretold
And bringing forth soon recompensed with joy,
Fruit of thy womb. On me the curse aslope
Glanced on the ground: with labor I must earn
My bread. What harm? Idleness had been worse." (X 1048 - 1055)

These words bring home the structuralist ideas that the world can be constructed into a set of binaries, and to understand or appreciate one side of the binary, the other side must be understood. While before Adam and Eve were innocent, lacking appreciation for their place as God’s best creatures, with their new knowledge they can acknowledge the grace of God more fully and understand the definitions of Goodness through their actions of Sin. Although Eve will go through pain in childbirth, it is through this suffering that new life will be born; although Adam must labour to feed his family, it will be a satisfying task as he earns the right to eat and live. Most importantly, Adam and Eve leave Eden wiser for their Fall, and in consolation, Michael the Archangel, charged with dispossessing them and giving Adam visions of the future, tells Adam the recipe of a good life beyond Eden:

“This having learned thou hast attained the sum
Of wisdom ...
... Only add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add faith,
Add virtue, patience, temperance, add love,
By name to come called charity, the soul
Of all the rest. Then wilt thou not be loath
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A paradise within thee, happier far.” (XII 575 – 587)

This “paradise within” can be construed as God’s conscience, mentioned in Book III: “And I will place within them as a guide / My umpire conscience whom if they will hear / Light after light well used they shall attain / And to the end persisting safe arrive” (III 194 –1 97), a further gift of God, it can be said, to help Mankind along the dark night of the soul which will be faced in times to come. The Devil does not receive such a gift, but his actions have inadvertently given it to humanity.

With this new understanding in mind, where does this leave Satan? Nothing changes for him – either Fate has him in his place as the Eternal Adversary, or his nature has chained him in angst-filled misery, and he has let loose Death and Sin upon Mankind without realizing that Adam and Eve now have the capacity to counter them. His revenge remains incomplete as long as humanity thrives and there remains hope for salvation. However, the felix culpa, the happy fault, is of his doing, and as generations pass beyond the ideal of absolutes and the stasis of goodness, the Devil should be given his due as humanity’s unwitting Prometheus, our puppet and stepping stone to grace through knowledge.

EDIT: Printed it. Oh well!