Radical Orthodoxy

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.

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

Radical Orthodoxy? A Catholic Enquiry is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand 'Radical Orthodoxy', or be in critical dialogue with it. John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward, the three principal exponents of Radical Orthodoxy, each enter into dialogue with theologians from the Catholic tradition - a tradition with whose sources and current researches Radical Orthodoxy claims to have much in common. The Introduction explores the issues and tensions involved in Radical Orthodoxy's dialogue with Catholic theology, and David Burrell offers an important evaluation of Radical Orthodoxy in the context of North America. In the first dialogue John Milbank presents one of the clearest expositions of the Radical Orthodoxy programme to date; Fergus Kerr's reply discusses this programme in the wider context of post-war Catholic debate. Catherine Pickstock explores the work of Aquinas to show how Radical Orthodoxy is appropriating the work of past theological giants, and in reply Laurence Hemming asks what questions remain in that process. Graham Ward, Oliver Davies and Lucy Gardner debate the challenges facing contemporary theology, both from the past and the postmodern present. James Hanvey's provocative conclusion opens the way to future debate. Challenging, yet accessibly written, this book represents an important milestone in the critical reception of Radical Orthodoxy. Shedding new light on contemporary issues and current theological enquiry, this book offers important insights to students of theology and those training for ministry, clergy and informed lay people, and everyone who wants to make sense of one of the most demanding yet important debates currently taking place.

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

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

Aquinas and Radical Orthodoxy investigates the encounter of the most vibrant and controversial trend in recent theology with the greatest Christian thinker of the Middle Ages. The book describes Radical Orthodoxy’s orientation and highlights those anti-secular strategies and intellectual influences that have shaped its appeal to Aquinas. It surveys the emergence of the particular picture of Aquinas especially associated with the leaders of Radical Orthodoxy, John Milbank and his student Catherine Pickstock, along with the scholarly disputes which prompted and followed that development. The book then undertakes a detailed investigation of the pivotal publications on Aquinas of those two authors, laying out their difficult theories in clear language, carefully examining the texts of Aquinas to which they appeal, and challenging their interpretations on a number of fundamental points. Topics covered include: analogical language and knowledge of God, the role of metaphysics within theology, the relation of cognition to the divine archetypes of things, the possibility of human apprehension of God’s essence, the nature of substance, and speculation on the Trinity. The conclusion reflects on those elements suppressed by the Radical Orthodox reading of Aquinas, their constructive philosophical and theological possibilities, and the challenges they present to the Radical Orthodox project.

This text debates the Augustinian origins of modern subjectivity & the Christian genesis of Western nihilism.