Radical Orthodoxy And The Reformed Tradition

Provides a helpful overview of Radical Orthodoxy, highlights its areas of agreement with Reformed theology, and assesses its value as a truly postmodern theology.

Leading scholars highlight the growing dialogue between proponents of Radical Orthodoxy and thinkers in the Reformed tradition.

Radical Orthodoxy is a new wave of theological thinking that aims to reclaim the world by situating its concerns and activities within a theological framework, re-injecting modernity with theology. This collection of papers is essential reading for anyone eager to understand religion, theology, and philosophy in a completely new light.

When the Radical Reformers demanded the separation of church and state, it was not to privatize their convictions or depoliticize the church, but rather an attempt to recognize Jesus as Lord over all. The theological movement known as Radical Orthodoxy is currently rethinking theology's influence by secular modernity, thereby making a bold critique of contemporary Christianity. It should not be surprising that Anabaptist theologians have found theological kinship with Radical Orthodoxy. Taking their cues from John Howard Yoder, Henri de Lubac, Jacques Derrida, Stanley Cavell, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Stanley Hauerwas, and others, writers in this volume engage Radical Orthodoxy on topics such as ecclesiology, martyrdom, worship, oath-taking, peace and violence. (Amazon).

This book presents the first debate between the contemporary movement Radical Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodox theologians. Leading international scholars offer new insights and reflections on a wide range of contemporary issues from a specifically theological and philosophical perspective. The ancient notion of divine Wisdom (Sophia) serves as a common point of reference in this encounter. Both Radical and Eastern Orthodoxy agree that the transfiguration of the world through the Word is at the very centre of the Christian faith. The book explores how this process of transformation can be envisaged with regard to epistemological, ontological, aesthetical, ecclesiological and political questions. Contributors to this volume include Rowan Williams, John Milbank, Antoine Arjakovsky, Michael Northcott, Nicholas Loudovikos, Andrew Louth and Catherine Pickstock.

First Published in 2008. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Since its beginning in the 1990s, Radical Orthodoxy has become perhaps the most influential, and certainly the most controversial, movement in contemporary theology. This book offers an introduction to the Radical Orthodox sensibility through sermons preached by some of those most prominent figures in radical orthodoxy. Accessible, challenging and varied, the sermons together help to suggest what Radical Orthodoxy might mean in practice. Contributors include Andrew Davison, John Milbank, John Inge, Catherine Pickstock, Martin Warner, Graham Ward and Stanley Hauerwas Contents I. Reclaiming Time: Advent Lifting the Veil on the World - Ian Boxall 11 The Christ Who is Coming - Arabella Milbank 15 Waiting and Birthing - Kirsten Pinto Gfroerer 19 II. Preaching Paradox: Christmas to Candlemas Nativity: Words and the Word - Alison Milbank 27 Epiphany: Surprised by Joy - Alison Milbank 30 Music and What Matters Most - Andrew Davison 33 Christ’s Baptism: The Cold Water of Baptism - Joseph Vnuk 37 Amiably Drawn Edmund Newey 41 Conversion of St Paul: The Road to Insight - Silvianne Aspray 45 Christian Unity: Splendour with no Bounds - Martin Warner 49 St Thomas Aquinas: Beatific Theology - Jeffrey Phillips 52 Presentation of Christ: Out of the Dark Time - John Milbank 56 III. Unfolding the Story: Lent to Easter Sunday Ash Wednesday: On Being Dust - Anthony Baker 63 Living in the Rhythm of Worship - David Moss 67 God and Nature - David Neaum 72 Passion Sunday: A Wondrous Exchange - Rachel Greene 76 Palm Sunday: Inside the Story - Melanie Marshall 80 Maundy Thursday: Food Enough to Triumph - Jeffrey P. Bishop 82 Good Friday: Passionate Actions - John Muddiman 87 Easter Sunday: Death’s Name for Love is Resurrection - David Widdicombe 92 IV. Real Resurrection: Eastertide to Trinity Sunday Disturbing Faith - Ruth Jackson 99 Being Witnesses - Peter Groves 104 Heaven is Other People - Jeremy Morris 108 Love is the only Politics that Matters - Matthew Bullimore 112 The Tangled Vine - Jennifer Strawbridge 117 Ascension: Becoming Heaven-bent - Simone Kotva 121 St Philip and St James: Love’s Labour - Graham Ward 126 Pentecost: Language of Joy - John Inge 129 Trinity: Finding Ourselves in the Trinity - Alison Milbank 134 V. For the Time Being: Trinity Season and Christian Lives Corpus Christi: Consume and be Consumed - Gregory Platten 141 The Sound of Silence - Stanley Hauerwas 145 St Mary Magdalene: Witness to the Depths of God - Stephen Conway 151 Transfiguration: The Beauty in the Ugliness - John Hughes 156 Assumption: Mary, Battered and Glorious Vessel - Melanie Marshall 160 Challenging Christians? - Fergus Kerr 164 Michaelmas: I Believe in Angels - Robert Chapman 168 Lord of the Harvest - Michael Northcott 171 Dedication Festival: The Feast of You and Me - Richard Stanton 176 Holy Fear, Holy Play Frances Ward 181 Remembrance: Remembering Well - Philip Krinks 186 Baptism: Higher than the Angels - John Hughes 189 Confirmation: Divine Athletes - Stephen Platten 192 Confirmation: God’s Designer Label - Nigel Peyton 195 Marriage: The Abundant Economy - Simon Oliver 198 Ordination: Are You Real? - Anna Matthews 202 First Mass: Overlapping Gifts - Catherine Pickstock 206 Funeral: Repeating Ourselves- James Robinson 211

Radical Orthodoxy, whose founding father is John Milbank, claims that God has been pushed to the margins in modernity and that a false and misleading neo-theology has taken hold that needs to be revisited and contested. It is this return to the premodern that often leads theologians to have reservations about Radical Orthodoxy when they might otherwise have some sympathy for many of its positions. Radical Orthodoxy, like most traditional theology, claims that the power of God is in all creation and that God sits everywhere for all to partake of. But there appears to be a failure to see that the church and theology do not set in place systems that live out this basic assumption. Liberation theology, while sharing much of the same assumption that God is everywhere and to be shared, at the same time engages in a critique of the structures that claim to facilitate this vision, and finds them wanting. From here, then, liberation theologians attempt to refigure our understanding of shared power in order to broaden the vision, while it may be argued that Radical Orthodoxy simply restates the assumption with little political critique of the issues. Perhaps this point explains why this book is titled The Poverty of Radical Orthodoxy rather than Radical Error!