John Milbank

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John Milbank, a Christian theologian, is Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham. He previously taught at the University of Virginia and before that at the University of Cambridge. Born in 1952 in London, Milbank was educated in Britain, receiving his Doctor of Divinity from Cambridge. A key part of the controversy surrounding Milbank concerns his view of the relationship between Theology and the social sciences. He argues that the social sciences are a product of the modern ethos of secularism, which stems from an ontology of violence. Theology, therefore, should not seek to make constructive use of social theory, for theology itself offers a comprehensive vision of all reality, extending to the social and political without the need for social theory. Milbank is sometimes described as a metaphysical theologian, in that he is concerned with establishing a Christian trinitarian ontology. He relies heavily on aspects of Augustine and Plato's thought, in particular its modification by the neo-Platonists. Together with Graham Ward and Catherine Pickstock, he has helped forge a new trajectory in constructive theology known as "radical orthodoxy" -- a predominantly Anglo-Catholic sensibility highly critical of modernity.

[edit] Books

• Theology and Social Theory, 1990 - (ISBN 0-631-18948-3)
• The Word Made Strange, 1997 - (ISBN 0-631-20336-2)
• Truth in Aquinas, with Catherine Pickstock 2000 - (ISBN 0-415-23335-6)
• Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon, 2003 - (ISBN 0-415-30525-X)
• The Suspended Middle: Henri de Lubac and the Debate concerning the Supernatural, 2005 - (ISBN 0-8028-2899-X)

[edit] Essays by Milbank that appear in edited volumes

• "Postmodern Critical Augustinianism: A Short Summa in Forty-two Responses to Unasked Questions", found in The Postmodern God: a Theological Reader, edited by Graham Ward, 1997 - (ISBN 0-631-20141-6)
• "The Last of the Last: Theology in the Church", found in Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, 2004 - (ISBN 1-58743-063-0)
• "Alternative Protestantism: Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition", found in Radical Orthodoxy And the Reformed Tradition: Creation, Covenant, And Participation, 2005 - (ISBN 0-8010-2756-X)

[edit] External links

• The Ethics of Self-Sacrifice article in First Things (1999)
• "Christ the Exception" from the Center of Theological Inquiry
• University Profile at the University of Nottingham
• The Centre of Theology and Philosophy, of which Milbank is the director.