Radical orthodoxy

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Radical Orthodoxy is an inter-denominational, predominantly British, postmodern Christian movement that takes its name from the title of a collection of essays published by Routledge in 1999: Radical Orthodoxy, A New Theology, edited by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward. Prior to the publication of Radical Orthodoxy, A New Theology, John Milbank described his own work as postmodern critical Augustinianism. The snappier 'radical orthodoxy', frequently abbreviated to RO, is now the widely used term.

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

In documents produced by those who publish under the radical orthodoxy title it is commonly claimed that RO is not a movement, and thus has no membership, but is rather a theological sensibility which is expressed in a variety of contexts and projects.

Geographically radical orthodoxy is centred around in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies of The University of Nottingham and its outgrowth The Centre for Philosophy and Theology (where John Milbank and Conor Cunningham are located) and at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Cambridge (where Catherine Pickstock can be found).

James K.A. Smith, a member of the Reformed tradition, published in 2004 Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-secular Theology, intended to provide a fairly simple introduction to the subject, mainly for academic audiences.

[edit] Main ideas

Radical Orthodoxy names various attempts to recover the significance of patristic, medieval and renaissance Christian doctrinal reasoning for contemporary philosophical theology. In this it has much in common with other critiques of what is loosely and imprecisely named liberalism in modern theology. What distinguishes Radical Orthodoxy is the heavy influence of French postmodern philosophy on its more prominent authors, and an intense interest in the Greek Neoplatonism of the fourth and fifth centuries.

[edit] Influence of postmodernism

The influence of postmodernism is seen in the kinds of topic investigated, especially semiology, but it is also visible as one of the things that Radical Orthodoxy opposes. John Milbank, in particular, insists that it is wrong to acknowledge the autonomy of philosophy vis-a-vis theology, and much of his work criticises French philosophers whose work claims such autonomy. The generally French feel of some Radical Orthodoxy is also expressed in a warm appreciation for the work of Henri de Lubac, especially in questions of nature and grace, compared with a perhaps more muted appreciation for the German-language work of the Swiss Hans Urs von Balthasar, and decidedly more critical engagement with the German-language work of another Swiss, Karl Barth. The details of this are complex, but the melding of philosophy and theology in de Lubac is considered more radically orthodox than the relative autonomy accorded philosophy by both Balthasar and Barth. Those whose theological training is predominantly Germanic, with an emphasis on Reformed theology and Kantian philosophy, thus have to accustom themselves to more French styles of thinking if they are to appreciate just what it is that Radical Orthodoxy is promoting and critiquing. Claims that Radical Orthodoxy is unintelligible can often be interpreted as unwillingness to undergo such re-education. 'Germanic' critiques of Radical Orthodoxy tend to speak past, rather than against, its French style and theses, and there is yet to be a critique of Radical Orthodoxy that is fluent in its idioms and sources.[citation needed]

[edit] Influence of Neoplatonism

The interest in Greek Neoplatonism is seen in the significance accorded to two of its perhaps more surprising philosophical sources: pagan writers such as the Syrian Iamblichus of Chalcis (ca. 245-325) and the Byzantine Proclus (412-485). It is the quest for a revised Christian materialism that leads back to these writers, accompanied by a desire to be influenced in a Christian way by them, just as Augustine was influenced by stoicism, or Thomas Aquinas by Aristotle. The strands identified in the Neoplatonists extend through Nicolas of Cusa and Meister Eckhart, to a minority tradition that never became central in the principal post-renaissance traditions, but which never disappeared entirely. One of the key tasks of this renewed minority tradition is to revisit the Dominican (Aquinas) and Franciscan (Duns Scotus) reformations that brought about modernity, especially with respect to questions of the relation between language and being, infinity and finitude, space and time.

[edit] Second Renaissance

Radical Orthodoxy can perhaps meaningfully be viewed as an attempt at a second Renaissance, in the wake of the abortion of the first owing to the reformations and counter-reformations in the sixteenth century. Like the Italian Renaissance, it shows an interest in the sciences and the arts, all taken up in a renewed theological vision. Unlike the Italian Renaissance, this British Renaissance has few actual scientists and artists that it can claim for its own. This lends Radical Orthodoxy the air of a fantasy theology, a tradition that could have been but has yet actually to be. It appears as interpretations of paintings that have yet to be produced, music that has yet to be composed, and dramas that have yet to be staged. Radical Orthodoxy is, as yet, a Renaissance without patronage. More significantly it is not obvious that there are actual services of Christian worship of which a theology like Radical Orthodoxy is the reflexive form. Catholic theologies are usually subsequent to liturgical practices; Radical Orthodoxy has a strong reformed accent in its counter-factual, critical and anticipatory quality. It nonetheless sets its face against barbarism in politics, in the arts and especially in the churches.

[edit] Key texts

[edit] Books within the Radical Orthodoxy series

  • Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology,Milbank, Pickstock, Ward (eds). London: Routledge, 1999 - (ISBN 0-415-19699-X)
  • Truth in Aquinas, John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock. London: Routledge, 2000 - (ISBN 0-415-23335-6)
  • Divine Economy : Theology and the Market, D. Stephen Long. London: Routledge, 2000 - (ISBN 0-415-22673-2)
  • Cities of God, Graham Ward 2000 - (ISBN 0-415-20256-6)
  • Liberation Theology After the End of History: The Refusal to Cease Suffering, Daniel M. Bell. London: Routledge, 2001 - (ISBN 0-415-24304-1)
  • Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing & the Difference of Theology, Conor Cunningham. London: Routledge, 2002 - (ISBN 0-415-27694-2)
  • Speech and Theology: Language and the Logic of Incarnation, James K. A. Smith. London: Routledge, 2002 - (ISBN 0-415-27696-9)
  • Augustine and Modernity, Michael Hanby. London: Routledge, 2003 - (ISBN 0-415-28469-4)
  • Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon, John Milbank. London: Routledge, 2003 - (ISBN 0-415-30525-X)
  • Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II, Tracey Rowland. London: Routledge, 2003 - (ISBN 0-415-30527-6)
  • Truth in the Making; Knowledge and Creation in Modern Philosophy and Theology, Robert Miner. London: Routledge, 2003 - (ISBN 0-415-27698-5)
  • Philosophy, God and Motion, Simon Oliver. London: Routledge, 2005 - (ISBN 0-415-36045-5)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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