Radical Orthodoxy? — A Catholic Enquiry

190 Pages·2000·9.8 MB·English

by  Paul Hemming Laurence

RADICAL ORTHODOXY? - A CATHOLIC ENQUIRY
'This volume mil be invaluable to all those interested in Radical Orthodoxy itself,
quite apart from the Catholic dimension. In their essays Milbank, Pickstock and Ward
engage in the tasks of clarifying, modifying and developing their positions in response
to various criticisms that have recently arisen ...a stimulating and engaging
collection of essays that moves the debate forward in genuinely innovative ways.'
Modern Theology
'...a valuable introduction to the Radical Orthodoxy movement. Those engaged in
critical reflection on the merits and limitations of modern theology for the postmodern
world will find it a challenging and stimulating collection.'
Theological Studies
'The academic ferocity of the debate is immediately evident in these essays... This
volume will be of immense value for theologians everywhere, but it will also be useful
for average believers who simply wish to keep abreast of the Catholic position. As a
movement that manages simultaneously to place God back in the centre of theology,
capture public imagination, and usher in a new age of post secularism, Radical
Orthodoxy is set to rock the theological world further, a worrying thought that makes
this lucid Catholic enquiry all the more welcome.'
John Townsend in The Catholic Herald
'An excellent collection - advancing, both pro and con, the most provocative
theological movement of the new millennium.'
James J. Buckley, Loyola College in Maryland, USA
'The intellectual energy displayed in this exchange shows the vitality
of British theology today.'
Nicholas Lash, Emeritus Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity,
University of Cambridge, UK
HE YTHROP STUDIES
IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION & THEOLOGY
Series Editor
Laurence Paul Hemming, Heythrop College, University of London, UK
Series Editorial Advisory Board
John McDade SJ; Peter Vardy; Michael Barnes SJ; James Hanvey SJ;
Philip Endean S J; Anne Murphy SHC J
Drawing on renewed willingness amongst theologians and philosophers to enter into
critical dialogues with contemporary issues, this series is characterised by Heythrop's
reputation for openness and accessibility in academic engagement. Presenting
volumes from a wide international, ecumenical, and disciplinary range of authors, the
series explores areas of current theological, philosophical, historical, and political
interest. The series incorporates a range of titles: accessible texts, cutting-edge
research monographs, and edited collections of essays. Appealing to a wide academic
and intellectual community interested in philosophical, religious and theological
issues, research and debate, the books in this series will also appeal to a theological
readership which includes enquiring lay-people, Clergy, members of religious
communities, training priests, and anyone engaging broadly in the Catholic tradition
and with its many dialogue partners.
Published titles
Biblical Morality - Mary E. Mills
ISBN 07546 1579 0[Hb]
ISBN 075461580 4 [Pb]
Challenging Women's Orthodoxies in the Context of Faith - Edited by
Susan Frank Parsons
ISBN0754614190 [Hb]
ISBN 075461420 4 [Pb]
Forthcoming titles include
A Moral Ontology for a Theistic Ethic - Frank G. Kirkpatrick
ISBN 07546 3156 7 [Hb]
ISBN 07546 3157 5 [Pb]
Radical Orthodoxy?
- A Catholic Enquiry
Edited by
LAURENCE PAUL HEMMING
| J Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First Published 2000 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Laurence Paul Hemming 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Radical orthodoxy? - a Catholic enquiry. - (Heythrop
studies in contemporary philosophy, religion and theology)
1. Catholic Church 2. Philosophical theology
I. Hemming, Laurence Paul II. Heythrop College
230'.046
Library of Congress Control Number: 00-29312
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-1293-3 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-1292-6 (hbk)
Contents
List of Contributors vii
Acknowledgements ix
PARTI: INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction 3
Radical Orthodoxy's Appeal to Catholic Scholarship
Laurence Paul Hemming
2 Radical Orthodoxy in a North American Context 20
David B. Burr ell CSC
PART II: THE PROGRAMME OF RADICAL ORTHODOXY
3 The Programme of Radical Orthodoxy 33
John Milbank
4 A Catholic Response to the Programme of Radical Orthodoxy 46
Fergus Kerr OP
PART III: RADICAL ORTHODOXY'S RETRIEVAL OF THEOLOGICAL
SITES
5 Radical Orthodoxy and the Mediations of Time 63
Catherine Pickstock
6 Quod Impossibile Est! Aquinas and Radical Orthodoxy 76
Laurence Paul Hemming
vi Radical Orthodoxy? - A Catholic Enquiry
PART IV: RADICAL ORTHODOXY AND THE QUESTION OF THE
CONTEMPORARY
7 Radical Orthodoxy and/as Cultural Politics 97
Graham Ward
8 Revelation and the Politics of Culture 112
A Critical Assessment of the Theology of John Milbank
Oliver Davies
9 Listening at the Threshold 126
Christology and the "Suspension of the Material"
Lucy Gardner
PARTY: CONCLUSION
10 Conclusion: Continuing the Conversation 149
James Hanvey SJ
Index 173
List of Contributors
David Burrell CSC is Theodore Hesburgh Professor in Philosophy and
Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and has been working
since 1982 in comparative issues in philosophical theology in Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, His many publications include Knowing the
Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas (Indiana, Notre Dame
University Press, 1986) and Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions
(Indiana, Notre Dame University Press, 1993), as well as translations of al-
Ghazali. He is currently directing the University of Notre Dame's Jerusalem
program at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute.
Oliver Davies is Reader in Philosophical Theology at the University of Wales,
Lampeter. He has written extensively on Mediaeval mystical texts, including
Meister Eckhart Mystical Theologian (London, SPCK, 1991) as well as
translations of texts of the Rhineland mystics and the work of Hans Urs von
Balthasar.
Lucy Gardner is Tutor in Christian Doctrine at St Stephen's House, Oxford.
She is a co-author of Balthasar at the End of Modernity (Edinburgh, T&T
Clark, 1999).
James Hanvey SJ is Head of Systematic Theology at Heythrop College,
University of London. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of
Heythrop Studies in Contemporary Philosophy, Religion and Theology.
Laurence Paul Hemming is a Lecturer in the Systematic Theology Department
at Heythrop College, University of London. He is an editor of the series
Heythrop Studies in Contemporary Philosophy, Religion, and Theology.
Fergus Kerr OP is Regent of Blackfriars, Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of the
Divinity Faculty at the University of Edinburgh. His publications include
Theology after Wittgenstein (London, SPCK, 1997 [Oxford, Blackwell, 1986])
and Immortal Longings: Versions of Transcending Humanity (Indiana,
University of Notre Dame Press, 1997). He is editor of New Blackfriars.
viii Radical Orthodoxy? - A Catholic Enquiry
John Milbank is Francis Myers Ball Professor of Philosophical Theology at
the University of Virginia, having previously held posts at Lancaster
University and the University of Cambridge. He is the author of The
Religious Dimension in the Thought of Giambattista Vico (Lampeter,
Lewiston, 1991); Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason
(Oxford, Blackwell, 1990); and The Word Made Strange: Theology,
Language, Culture (Oxford, Blackwell, 1997). He is also co-editor of Radical
Orthodoxy.
Catherine Pickstock is a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow at the Faculty
of Divinity, University of Cambridge. She is author of After Writing: On the
Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy (Oxford, Blackwell, 1998).
Graham Ward is Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics at the
University of Manchester. He is author ofBarth, Derrida, and the Language
of Theology (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Theology
and Critical Theory (London, Macmillan, 1996), as well as editor of The
Postmodern God (Oxford, Blackwell, 1997) and The de Certeau Reader
(Oxford, Blackwell, 1999).
Acknowledgements
This book is the fruit of a conference held under the same title as this book,
at Heythrop College in June 1999. I am grateful to all the speakers for making
their papers available for publication. I would like to thank John McDade SJ
and Peter Vardy for their advice and encouragement in establishing this new
series.
I am grateful to Canon Herbert Veal, Parish Priest of the Catholic Church of
Our Lady and the Holy Name of Jesus, Bow Common, London, for his
permission to reproduce the jacket illustration.
I must also thank Fergus Kerr OP, Editor of New Blackfriars and a contributor
to this volume, for his permission to reproduce parts of Catherine Pickstock's
1999 Oxford Aquinas Lecture here.
Finally, I owe a duty of thanks to Tony Hemming and Ferdinand Knapp for
their patient advice and help with proofs.
Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, 6th January, 2000.