Radical Orthodoxy (Theology)

Does social justice promote Christian unity? With reference to paragraph 12 of Unitatis Redintegratio—Vatican II's declaration on ecumenism—this book argues that an emphasis on justice and unity without proper consideration of social context actually risks obscuring a clear public declaration of Christ, by having Christians uncritically accept the presumptions that underpin the sociopolitical status quo. This constitutes a failure in Christian interpretation, the crux of which is a failure in ecclesiology. Matthew John Paul Tan suggests the beginnings of a corrective with reference to works by Pope Benedict XVI, theologians such as Graham Ward, and postmodern theorists like Michel Foucault. Ultimately, Tan invites the reader to begin considering how answering this seemingly simple question will implicate not only theology, but also philosophy and political theory, as well as considering the need for the church to engage in a bolder confessional politics in place of the politics of the public square often favored by Christian and non-Christian commentators.

Il volume intende presentare al lettore italiano il pensiero del teologo anglicano John Milbank (Londra, 1952), fondatore del movimento teologico Radical Orthodoxy. Noto per il dialogo senza esclusione di colpi con Slavoj Žižek, Milbank ha elaborato un pensiero che intende mostrare la fecondità dell’intelligenza della fede cristiana per chiarire molti dei nodi determinanti l’attuale decadenza culturale e sociale. Critico del pensiero secolare “inventato” nel corso della modernità occidentale e sviluppato in senso nichilistico dall’attuale pensiero postmoderno, Milbank propone di pensare la condizione attuale come un tempo opportuno per rilanciare il Cristianesimo come risposta alle conseguenze disgregatrici e violente prodotte dalla modernità sorta da alcune premesse infelici sorte dalla stessa teologia tardo-medievale. Un esempio particolarmente adatto ad illustrare quest’analisi del decorso del pensiero occidentale è costituito dall’interpretazione del tema della donazione, sia rispetto all’odierno dominio dello scambio mercantile, sia quanto alle più significative teorie filosofiche sul dono. Dalla brillante e profonda analisi milbankiana emerge un’alternativa ecclesiale e sociale all’attuale plesso liberal-capitalistico che, sotto il nome di socialismo per grazia, apre la riflessione al di là degli steccati imposti dal pensiero unico. Come scrive il prof. PierAngelo Sequeri nella Prefazione, questo studio «fa onore alla nuova generazione della scuola teologica italiana, e costituisce un complemento indispensabile per il suo migliore aggiornamento, sul fronte della ricerca internazionale di maggiore interesse».

"The Tsalayta D’Qyama, or “Prayer of the Covenant” is a traditional prayer found in both the Nazarani and Ethiopic rîtes. It may be used either as a preface for the celebration of the festal offices, or as the primary mode of worship of a congregation of believers when no priest is available to celebrate the Holy Offering. In the Nazarani Rîte it is also used with some modification as the official Morning Prayer of an episcopal liturgy.

The prayers are being presented here in what is intended to be a learn-able version of the Galilean dialect of Aramaic which was spoken by Jesus Christ and the majority of His Apostles, complete with a literal English language translation. The purpose of this is to provide the people of God with exemplary access to the ancient language and worship of Jesus Christ, as it has been passed down to us across the millennia."

In his Cities of God, Graham Ward advocates for what he calls an ‘analogical worldview’. On the one hand, he suggests that this analogical worldview has its roots in pre-modern theology and philosophy, especially in Augustine and Aquinas. On the other hand, Graham Ward draws heavily on contemporary critical theory to express this view. The thesis defended in this paper is that by reading the concept of analogy from Augustine and Aquinas in terms of contemporary critical theory, especially that of Jacques Derrida, Ward develops an analogical worldview that has strikingly nominalist ramifications. These ramifications imply that, in the end, there is no longer an adequacy between the perceiving mind and the reality perceived. The argument is developed in three steps. In the first step, Ward’s reading of contemporary critical theory, especially with respect to Derrida, is introduced. In the second step, the theological appropriation of Derrida in the analogical worldview is analyzed. In the third step, the nominalist implications of this application are shown in terms of Ward’s critique of privileging heterosexual relationships. In this third section, I will also deal more extensively and precisely with the question of what I mean by labeling his work as ‘nominalism’ as well as outlining the specific form of nominalism that I am here invoking. In the penultimate section, I will attempt to show that Ward’s nominalism can also be found in the works of Milbank and Pickstock, as it has to do with the specific way in which they take up the Platonic tradition. In my concluding remarks, I will come back to the discussion about the ontological status of sexual relations, indicating my own view on this issue.