Milbank founded theradical orthodoxy movement.[30] His work crosses disciplinary boundaries, integrating subjects such assystematic theology,social theory, ethics,aesthetics, philosophy,political theory, andpolitical theology. He first gained recognition after publishingTheology and Social Theory in 1990, which laid the theoretical foundations for the movement which later became known as radical orthodoxy. In recent years he has collaborated on three books with philosopherSlavoj Žižek and Creston Davis, entitledTheology and the Political: The New Debate (2005),The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic (2009), andPaul's New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology (2010). Milbank delivered the Stanton Lectures at Cambridge in 2011.[31] Milbank's friendship and substantial intellectual common ground withDavid Bentley Hart has been noted several times by both thinkers.[32]
A key part of the controversy surrounding Milbank concerns his view of the relationship between theology and thesocial sciences. He argues that the social sciences are a product of the modern ethos ofsecularism, which stems from anontology of violence. Theology, therefore, should not seek to make constructive use of secularsocial theory, for theology itself offers a peaceable, comprehensive vision of all reality, extending to the social and political without the need for a social theory based on some level of violence. (AsContemporary Authors summarises his thought, "the Christian mythos alone 'is able to rescue virtue fromdeconstruction into violent,agonisticdifference.'")[36] Milbank argues that metaphysics is inescapable and therefore ought to be critically dealt with.[42]
Milbank is sometimes described as ametaphysical theologian in that he is concerned with establishing a Christiantrinitarian ontology. He relies heavily on aspects of the thought ofPlato andAugustine, in particular the former's modification by theneoplatonist philosophers.
Paul Hedges of in 2014 wrote inOpen Theology that Milbank's "theology is at best unhelpful, and at worst potentially dangerous".[a]
Nicholas Lash expressed reservations towards Milbank's views on the relation between "the sense of'power' (Macht)"[sic] and "violence", and between "theKingdom"[sic] and the Church.[47][48]
"Postmodern Critical Augustinianism: A Short Summa in Forty-two Responses to Unasked Questions", found inThe Postmodern God: A Theological Reader, edited byGraham Ward, 1997 – (ISBN0-631-20141-6)
"The Last of the Last: Theology in the Church", found inConflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, 2004 – (ISBN1-58743-063-0)
"Alternative Protestantism: Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition", found inRadical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition: Creation, Covenant, And Participation, 2005 – (ISBN0-8010-2756-X)
"Plato versus Levinas: Gift, Relation and Participation", found in Adam Lipszyc, ed.,Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy, Theology, Politics (Warsaw: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, 2006), 130–144.
"Sophiology and Theurgy: The New Theological Horizon", found inAdrian Pabst, ed.,Radical Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy (Basingstoke: Ashgate, 2009), 45–85 – (ISBN978-0-7546-6091-0)
^Paul Hedges ofS. Rajaratnam School of International Studies,Nanyang Technological University stated in one 2014Open Theology article that "John Milbank's Radical Orthodoxy employs styles of rhetoric and representation of the religiousOther that have clear affinities" with "ideologies" of "religious extremism andfundamentalism". Hedges wrote that Milbank's "rhetoric and judgements" suggest that "his theology is at best unhelpful, and at worst potentially dangerous." Hedges simultaneously concedes that "a different approach can be detected in his most recent writings".[43][44][45][46]
^Milbank has described "legislative change" to legalizesame-sex marriage[57] as a strategy for the "extension of a form ofbiopolitical tyranny", arguing that "[w]here the reality of sexual difference is denied, then it gets reinvented in perverse ways - just as the over-sexualisation of women and the confinement of men to a marginalised machismo. Secondly, it would end the public legal recognition of a social reality defined in terms of the natural link between sex and procreation." He drew onJames Alison to assert that "it is possible to recognise the legitimacy of faithful homosexual union without conceding that this is tantamount to marriage".[58]
^Milbank also describes the medical practice of assisted suicide as "the polite, liberal Holocaust".[59]
^He allegedly characterised "liberation, local, 'practice based'black,feminist,queer, trans, disability" theologies as "tiresome careerist and naturally elitist bollocks. But no one serious takes it seriously."[60]
^abEugenio, Dick O. (2014).Communion with the Triune God: The Trinitarian Soteriology of T. F. Torrance. Princeton Theological Monograph Series. Vol. 204. Eugene, Oregon: Penwick Publications. p. 177.ISBN978-1-62564-036-9.
^Gay, Doug (2013).Honey from the Lion: Christian Theology and the Ethics of Nationalism. London: SCM Press. p. 60.ISBN978-0-334-04647-9.
^Moseley, Carys (2013).Nationhood, Providence, and Witness: Israel in Protestant Theology and Social Theory. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books. p. 4.ISBN978-1-62189-676-0.
^Bushlack, Thomas J. (2015).Politics for a Pilgrim Church: A Thomistic Theory of Civic Virtue. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 130.ISBN978-0-8028-7090-2.
^White, Vernon (2016) [2000]. "The Future of Theology". InPercy, Martyn (ed.).Calling Time: Religion and Change at the Turn of the Millennium. London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 215.ISBN978-1-4742-8116-4.
^Bell, Daniel M. Jr. (2004). "State and Civil Society". In Scott, Peter;Cavanaugh, William T. (eds.).The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology. Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion. Vol. 40. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. p. 433.ISBN978-0-470-99735-2.
^abKettle, Martin (15 September 2016)."Brexit was a revolt against liberalism. We've entered a new political era".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077. Retrieved2 March 2023.But it is striking that this week saw the publication of a book by John Milbank and Adrian Pabst, which takes post-liberalism as an established reality and as the starting point for the examination of a new kind of politics based on a vision of social and personal virtue and what the authors dub conservative socialism.
^Kennedy, Paul (2007)."On Radical Orthodoxy".Ideas (Podcast). Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Event occurs at 0:05:57–0:06:12. Retrieved11 February 2018 – via Centre of Theology and Philosophy.
^"Dr. D. Aaron Riches". Granada, Spain: Institute of Philosophy "Edith Stein". Archived fromthe original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved12 February 2018.
^Rowe, Terra S. (2016). "Grace and Climate Change: The Free Gift in Capitalism and Protestantism". In Dahill, Lisa E.; Martin-Schramm, James B. (eds.).Eco-Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books. p. 263.ISBN978-1-4982-2546-5.
^Shortt, Rupert (2005).God's Advocates: Christian Thinkers in Conversation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 112.ISBN978-0-8028-3084-5.
^Davis, Richard A. (2013).The Political Church and the Profane State in John Milbank and William Cavanaugh (PhD thesis). Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. p. 220.hdl:1842/8216.
^abContemporary Authors Online, s.v. "(Alasdair) John Milbank" Accessed 9 March 2009
^Date of birth information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via correspondingWorldCat Identities linked authority file (LAF). Retrieved on 14 February 2018.
^Milbank, Alasdair John (23 June 2020)."Twenty-Five Theses on Empire".Theopolis Institute. Retrieved2 March 2023.[...] a communitarian international order, based upon a shared cultural sense of natural justice, requires some sort of institutional embodiment. Not "super-states," but federated commonwealths that to a degree pool their sovereignty.
