John Milbank

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John Milbank
John Milbank, IEIS conference <<The Politics of Virtue, the crisis of liberalism and the post-liberal future>>-004.jpg
Milbank in October 2014
Born
Alasdair John Milbank

(1952-10-23) 23 October 1952 (age 71)
Kings Langley, England
Spouse
(m. 1978)
Academic background
Alma mater
Thesis The Priority of the Made (1986)
Doctoral advisor Leon Pompa
Influences

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 secular social 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. (As Contemporary Authors summarises his thought, "the Christian mythos alone 'is able to rescue virtue from deconstruction into violent, agonistic difference.'") [36] Milbank argues that metaphysics is inescapable and therefore ought to be critically dealt with. [41]

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 the thought of Plato and Augustine, in particular the former's modification by the neoplatonist philosophers.

Milbank, together with Graham Ward and Catherine Pickstock, has helped forge a new trajectory in constructive theology known as radical orthodoxy  – a predominantly Anglo-Catholic approach which is highly critical of modernity.

Practical views

Milbank explicitly supports 'socialis[t]' social organization. [21] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46]

He has been described as 'communitarian'. [47] [48] [49]

Milbank has described the "legislative change" to legalize same-sex marriage [50] as a strategy for the "extension of a form of biopolitical 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 on James Alison to argue that "it is possible to recognise the legitimacy of faithful homosexual union without conceding that this is tantamount to marriage". [51]

Milbank also describes the medical practice of assisted suicide as "the polite, liberal Holocaust". [52]

Other views

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." [53]

Reception

Paul Hedges of S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University stated in one 2014 Open Theology article that "John Milbank's Radical Orthodoxy employs styles of rhetoric and representation of the religious Other that have clear affinities" with "ideologies" of "religious extremism and fundamentalism". 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". [54] [55] [56] [57]

Nicholas Lash expressed reservations towards Milbank's views on the relation between "the sense of 'power' (Macht)" and "violence", and between "the Kingdom" and the Church. [58] [59]

See also

Bibliography

Books

Essays in edited volumes

Journal articles

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References

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