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William Blake! My favorite poet! If I was to describe him in a few words I think this is what comes to mind. Blake was not an orthodox Christian: he was interested in various sects (he was. e.g. a Swedenborgian) and theories (e.g. Jakob Boehme), he joined and broke with them (I must create my own system, or be enslaved by the system of another), he accused God of indifference, he took up for animals (The dog starved at the gate of the Farm/This augurs the fall and ruin of the State; He who mocks the Infant's Faith/Shall be mock'd in Age & Death), attacked the clergy, demanded free love (yet he did not decide to have a second wife when his current wife did not like the idea), affirmed women and female nudity (Nakedness of women is the work of God) - did he lack the courage for male nudity? It is hard to believe since he was not afraid of any nudity in his painting.
In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell the voice of the Devil says that the Bible is the source of 3 errors when it claims that:
1. man consists of body and soul
2. energy is Evil and comes only from the body, while reason is Good and comes only from the soul
3. God will torment man for indulging in Energy
On the other hand, it would be true (and this is also Blake's own conception) that:
1. the soul and the body are one, for the body is part of the soul and the five senses are its windows
2. energy is life and comes from the body, and the reason is the limitation, the fetter of Energy
3. energy is Eternal Joy
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