Radical Orthodoxy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Radical Orthodoxy is a predominantly British, postmodern Christian theological 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. 'Radical Orthodoxy', frequently abbreviated to RO, is now the widely used term. Although the movement was initially dominated by Anglicans it now includes theologians from a number of other church traditions.

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

Radical Orthodoxy is not a clearly defined "school," "movement," or a "new theology"; it is a reaction to modern theology. To better understand Radical Orthodoxy and the meaning of it, one has to have a firm understanding of what is meant by "modern theology." The goal of modern theology is to look for new categories to present a theological essence. This is usually understood in the terms of a "mystery that transcends the new categories used for its expression"[1]. Thus, modern theology is progressive. The goal of Radical Orthodoxy is to escape the constraints of modern progress.

Radical Orthodoxy beginnings are found in a series of books by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward.

Radical Orthodoxy was principally centred 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 teach) and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge (where Catherine Pickstock teaches).

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

[edit] Main ideas

Radical Orthodoxy is John Milbank's reaction to the critique of modern secularism of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Jacques Derrida. Milbank is reacting to modern theology's use of transcendentalism. The philosopher Immanuel Kant defined the transcendental as "all knowledge which is occupied not so much with objects as with our mode of knowing objects in so far as this knowledge is supposed to be possible a priori." By this, Kant means the way we think about things is how they appear to us. For this reason, we can only know things based on their appearance and we can not transcend our understanding of this beyond this point. Transcendentalism then becomes the basis for ontology, ethics, and aesthetics. The problem that occurs with this is the fact that God becomes irrelevant for practical matters of everyday life. God then becomes a stand whose sole purpose is to act as a supporting framework for transcendentalism. This leads to the thought of God being "causa sui" the self-caused cause, meaning that God only exists for the sake of his own existence.

Radical Orthodoxy cannot create or develop theology solely based on Christian dogma. It develops theological doctrine while it discusses politics, economics, and ethics all at the same time. It is a "radical" approach due to the fact that it is remembering its roots in Christian dogma; while it is remembering the intrinsic and necessary connection between theology and politics, and calling into questioning modern politics, culture, art, science, and philosophy all at the same time. Radical Orthodoxy is not changing or overcoming modern theology through negation and progress, it is surpassing through a "turning" that undoes any separation that has occurred between faith and reason, theology and philosophy. Radical Orthodoxy is taking theology back to its Christian dogma roots and applying that thought process to modern plitics, culture, art, science, and philosophy.

Radical Orthodoxy attempts to recover key aspects of patristic, medieval and renaissance Christian doctrinal reasoning for contemporary theology. In that, 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. Radical Orthodoxy builds on these influences, in surprising and much-criticized turns, the idea that secularity is invalid, and that the only coherent worldview is one grounded in the God of neoplatonism and the early Greek Fathers.

Radical Orthodoxy is heavily indebted to the neo-Platonist theory of participation, which proposes that finite creatures receive their existence, beatitude, and perfections by sharing to a limited degree in the fullness of perfection as it is found in and graciously given by a transcendent donating source (God). Thus being itself is only coherent in reference to a single 'God' conceived as such. This implies that no part of the world is outside of God, and that ideally, those who recognize and seek to relate authentically with God - that is, a single, global 'church', would subsume all community functions, including the modern state. Correspondingly, all members of the community would be related and integrated into the church, though unlike the liberal state, this integration could only occur as a coherent outgrowth of Patristic theology in a peaceful, nonviolent way.

[edit] Influence of postmodernism

The influence of postmodernism is seen in the kinds of topics investigated, especially semiology, but it is also visible as something 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 criticizes 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 thelogian Hans Urs von Balthasar, and decidedly more critical engagement with the German-language work of Karl Barth, another Swiss theologian. 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 an 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 Nicholas 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, and space and time.

[edit] Second Renaissance

Radical Orthodoxy can be viewed as an attempt at a second Renaissance, after a perceived 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, although this time interpreted from a theological point of view. Unlike the Italian Renaissance, this British-initiated Renaissance has few actual scientists and artists that it can claim for its own, albeit at such an early stage. This means that Radical Orthodoxy is yet to establish the substance of a full theological movement. Radical Orthodoxy informs worship and theology in a small number of Anglican, Catholic and Nordic Lutheran churches; these are usually churches which had already accepted high, somewhat traditional liturgy with a progressive stance in politics. Although none of the early Radical Orthodox theologians proceed from a Reformed theology, it has been noticed that Radical Orthodoxy has a 'reformed accent' in its counter-factual, critical and anticipatory quality.

[edit] Key texts

[edit] Books within the Radical Orthodoxy series

  • Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology, John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock, Graham Ward (eds). London: Routledge, 1999 - (ISBN 0-415-19699-X)
  • The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology, Kevin Vanhoozer (ed). United Kingdom: Cambridge, 2003-(ISBN 0-521-79062-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. London: Routledge, 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

[edit] References

  1. ^ D. Stephen Long, 'Radical Orthodoxy,' in The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 126-147 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 126.
Languages