Much attention has been paid to heterodox aspects of Milton's Christology. This book explores a point on which the poet is far less quirky and that is more central to his theodicy: the Son as a focus of human worship and redemption. The tag Arian that is often applied to Milton, Hillier argues, does not quite fit. It is in the first instance difficult to know just what Arianism is, given that none of Arius's writings survive. And several theologians claim the subordination of the Second Person, so referring to that position as Arian simply will not suffice.Socinian also proves to be a label not entirely suitable, and Milton's licensing of the Racovian Catechism is hardly decisive evidence that he subscribed to its views (14); Hillier instead places Milton alongside John Owen in objecting to the Socinian view of satisfaction (28–29).

This argument is presented in a compelling first chapter — compelling but, in the way of first books, perhaps too invested in elbowing critics aside to claim a place at the table. This book really hits its stride in its second and third chapters, which offer careful close readings of Paradise Lost glossed with impressive learning. Arguing against a rationalist view of Milton's theodicy, Hillier claims that asserting eternal providence and justifying the ways of God to men strongly suggest a “joint appeal to faith and proclaiming soteriological purpose” (38). Justifying God's ways is thus tied to the Reformation doctrine of justification with its fideist emphasis, an emphasis visible in Milton's De doctrina Christiana. (Hillier refers to that troubled text appropriately by building on the recent scholarship of Gordon Campbell, Thomas Corns, John Hale, and Fiona Tweedie, and by consistently examining extant translations with a critical eye.)

One reading showcasing many of Hillier's strengths is that of the Ladder at Heaven's gate in book 3 of Paradise Lost. The scene evokes Jacob's Ladder, which in turn suggests typological readings claiming an anticipation of Christ: following the poem's own suggestion that “Each stair mysteriously was meant” (3.516), the early commentator Patrick Hume remarked that “Christ indeed may be well represented by this Heavenly Ladder, for by him not only the angels, but all the Saints and faithful Servants of God . . . do ascend and descend” (71). Though Hume cites Matthew 22.30 to support his reading, Hillier points to John 1.51 as the more suggestive biblical text: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” This typology appears in Saint Augustine, John Reuchlin, Nicholas of Lyra, and Martin Luther — who describes Jacob's vision as leading Abraham and Isaac to expect a savior — and appears in John Donne's sermons and in Lucy Hutchinson's Order and Disorder (72–73). Milton anticipates the “mysterious” meaning of his cosmic ladder by using the rhetorical scheme of climax — from the Greek κλίμαξ, or “ladder,” which is “the same word used in the Septuagint to designate Jacob's Ladder” (75) — earlier in book 3 when God the Father adumbrates the stages of Redemption. Satan's encounter with the heavenly stair reappears in parodic form when he marches across the causeway built by Sin and Death in book 10, built by “wondrous Art / Pontifical” that “makes the Hellish causeway a mock of the Ladder that bodies forth the archetypal bridge-builder,” Christ, whom Milton describes in De doctrina Christiana as “reconciliatory pontifex (or bridge-builder)” (76). This is an intricate and perceptive reading. No less so is the reading of Paradise Regain'd in chapter 7. Hillier points to, though does not incorporate, his significant articles on Milton's brief epic, and argues here for the poem's unfolding of a Messianism intimately linked with Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice.

Every book raises concerns. While this book deals at some length with the theme of procession and return in Milton's epic, especially as it appears in Raphael's lesson to Adam, it does not explore the ways in which we might expect Milton to be skeptical of Christian Neoplatonism. Milton's antinomian streak departs from that tradition in emphasizing that divine grace can light howsoever God wishes, and is not bound by rules governing natural order. Though its scholarship is generally exemplary, this book does have its oversights. For example, the exposition of procession and return makes no mention of the Neoplatonism of Henry More, and the exposition of Jacob's Ladder makes no mention of the younger Sir Henry Vane's Pilgrimage into the Land of Promise, by the Light . . . of Jacobs Ladder ([London], 1664; Wing V 73) — an account of the Mediator by someone with whom Milton frequently agreed, posthumously published after Vane was martyred as a regicide in 1662.

These concerns, however, are relatively minor. Hillier's readings of Milton's poetry are frequently excellent, having that all-too-rare combination of dense learning and readability. This is a book well worth the attention of students of Milton and of Reformation theology, and one that makes a significant contribution to scholarship.