Radical Orthodoxy

Radical Orthodoxy is a Christian theological and philosophical school of thought which makes use of postmodern philosophy to reject the paradigm of modernity. The movement was founded by John Milbank and others and takes its name from the title of a collection of essays published by Routledge in 1999: Radical Orthodoxy, A New Theology, edited by Milbank, and Graham Ward. Although the principal founders of the movement are Anglicans, Radical Orthodoxy includes theologians from a number of church traditions.

Radical Orthodoxy's beginnings are found in a series of books edited by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward. Milbank's Theology and Social Theory (1990), while not part of this series, is considered the first significant text of the movement. The name "Radical Orthodoxy" was chosen initially since it was a more "snappy" title for the book series — initially Milbank considered the movement to be "postmodern critical Augustinianism", emphasising the use of a reading of St Augustine influenced by the insights of postmodernism in the work of the group. The name was also chosen in opposition to certain strands of so-called radical theology, for example those of Bishop John Shelby Spong; those strands asserted a highly liberal version of Christian faith where certain doctrines, for example the Trinity and the incarnation of God in Christ, were denied in an attempt to respond to modernity: in contrast to this, Radical Orthodoxy attempted to show how the orthodox interpretation of Christian faith (as given primarily in the ecumenical creeds) was the more radical response to contemporary issues and more rigorous and intellectually sustainable.

Radical Orthodoxy is a critique of modern secularism and Kantian accounts of metaphysics. The name "Radical Orthodoxy" emphasises the movement's attempt to return to or revive traditional doctrine ("", lat. radix, "root"; "orthodoxy", Gr. ὀρθός orthōs, "straight", and δόξα dóxa, "opinion"; hence, "correct teaching"). The movement reclaims the original early church idea that theology is the "queen of the sciences". This means that if the world is to be interpreted correctly, it must be viewed from the perspectives of theology. Radical Orthodoxy critiques secular sciences because their worldview is considered inherently atheistic and nihilistic, based on acts of ontological violence (of which the faith/reason, nature/grace separations are examples). What this means is that science, ethics, politics, economics and all other branches of study are interpreted and informed through a theological ontology, with the mainstream secular variations representing heresies (as in deviations from orthodoxy). Its ontology has some similarities to the Neoplatonist account of participation.

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