John Milbank Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, draft

Let us begin with a normative claim: all work must be an act of poiesis-a form of future-oriented making, poeta faber, a maker-poet of the future. Humanism, when understood as a cultural mediation between internal and external nature,... more

2025, La France au Vatican, Ambassade de France près le Saint-Siège

La remise du Prix de Lubac 2025 a eu lieu jeudi 22 mai 2025 à la Villa Bonaparte. Présidée par le Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline et Mme Florence Mangin, Ambassadrice de France près le Saint-Siège, la cérémonie a réuni les membres du jury, ainsi que les représentants des universités pontificales et de nombreux professeurs et étudiants. Le Jury du Prix s’était réuni le 28 février dernier pour la délibération...
https://va.ambafrance.org/Les-laureats-du-Prix-de-Lubac-2025

2025, Review Buku Menjejaki Alam Filsafat dalam Kajian Realisme ( 269-284)

Artikel yang ditulis oleh Dr. Muhammad Irfanudin Kurniawan, Ph.D. dalam bukunya Menjajaki Alam Filsafat pada halaman 269-284 mengangkat tema besar dalam filsafat, yaitu realisme, yang menjadi salah satu persoalan paling mendasar dalam bidang metafisika dan epistemologi. Dalam karyanya, penulis mencoba memetakan berbagai varian realisme yang berkembang dalam sejarah filsafat Barat—dari yang paling elementer seperti realisme naif, hingga bentuk yang lebih kompleks dan konseptual seperti realisme imanen. Ulasan ini bertujuan untuk memberikan pembacaan kritis terhadap artikel tersebut, menilai kelebihan dan kekurangannya, serta mengevaluasi kontribusinya terhadap diskursus filsafat kontemporer, khususnya dalam konteks pemikiran filsafat di Indonesia.

2025

Human Sanctity depicts people from the mission work I did in the Dominican Republic and at the U.S./Mexico border as sacred beings. The Dominican Republic, considered a developing country, has almost of quarter of their population living in poverty. Migrants at the U.S./Mexico border risk their lives trying to live a better life. Through religious iconography, I challenge the ideas of who we consider to be saints by depicting present day people in a medium used throughout art history. Seeing people from our everyday lives as sacred invites us to see those around us in a different way. Recognizing the divine is something we should strive for in each moment and person we encounter.

2025, "Dociekania. W stronę filozofii niesubstancjalnej", Kraków 2016

In the first part, the author gathers the most fundamental intuitions that will form the basis for a deeper analysis of the Creative Act. He proposes that the object of this Act is Reality itself, which the Act brings into being simultaneously in four dimensions: 1. as existence itself; 2. as the individual existence of the all-embracing whole in which everything that has ever existed (or will exist) participates; 3. as that whole as such; 4. and as that whole considered in its individuality. In the second part, the author explores specific themes arising from this conception of the Creative Act, examining, among other things, the nature of nothingness and how the Act is rooted in the nature of the Absolute.

2025, Finkelde, D. (eds) Žižek-Handbuch. J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg

In diesem Kapitel werden der englische Theologe John Milbank und die von ihm mitbegründete Bewegung der „Radikalen Orthodoxie“ vorgestellt. Letztere steht für ein konservatives Projekt, das sowohl die Autorität der Theologie innerhalb der akademischen Welt als auch die Autorität der Kirche innerhalb des Westens wiederherstellen möchte. Die mit ihr verbundenen Denker prägten Anfang der 2000er Jahre die theologische Auseinandersetzung mit der kontinentalen Philosophie im Allgemeinen und mit Žižek im Besonderen. Das Kapitel führt in Milbanks Denken und seine Rolle innerhalb der Radikalen Orthodoxie ein und präsentiert die kontroversen und Grundfragen des Politischen tangierenden Debatten um das Erbe des Christentums zwischen ihm und Žižek.

2025, Finkelde, D. (eds) Žižek-Handbuch. J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg

This chapter introduces the English theologian John Milbank and the "Radical Orthodoxy" movement he co-founded. The latter represents a conservative project that seeks to restore both the authority of theology within academia and the authority of the Church within the West. The thinkers associated with this movement shaped the theological debate with continental philosophy in general and with Žižek in particular in the early 2000s. This chapter introduces Milbank's thought and his role within Radical Orthodoxy and presents the controversial debates between him and Žižek about the legacy of Christianity, which touch on fundamental political issues.

2025, Finkelde, D. (eds) Žižek-Handbuch. J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg.

The Monstrosity of Christ presents Žižek's Hegelian reading of Christianity, as well as his engagement with the English theologian and co-founder of the "Radical Orthodoxy" movement, John Milbank. This chapter introduces the book and the context in which it was written, summarizing the key elements of Milbank's and Žižek's contributions and the disagreements they address.

2025

This paper follows on from the premise that humans are narrative beings, i.e. their identity is founded on stories. From a theological perspective, more importantly, Christian identity is founded on a particular story – the story of Jesus Christ. As a consequence, theology is the critical reflection of this story. Narrative theology is a school which emphasizes this point of departure. However, narrative theology also has its potential weaknesses. In the pursuit of their at least partial overcoming this paper suggests speaking about narrativist theology instead, drawing on from the difference between story and narrative. Subsequently, it argues for the need for the Christian church and theology to be involved in a generous and open dialog with various narratives of the Christian story and with various narratives of other stories. Finally, it suggests understanding (the Christian) story as something which must not be merely narrated, but also ritually enacted and embodied.

2025, Fides et Ratio

Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menampilkan gagasan St. Thomas Aquinas mengenai jiwa manusia. Selain itu, tulisan ini merupakan suatu respon atas berbagai kesalahpahaman tentang jiwa manusia. Jiwa, bagi St. Thomas, bukan hanya sebagai prinsip kehidupan, aktivitas dan organisasi tubuh tapi lebih dari itu yakni sebagai prinsip dari eksistensinya. Jiwa sebagai prinsip eksistensi yang memiliki karekter intelektual atau spiritual adalah substansi tidak lengkap yang memiliki kecenderungan natural untuk bersatu dengan tubuh membentuk substansi manusia lengkap. Kesatuan jiwa dan tubuh adalah kesepadanan partikular yang tidak dapat ditransmisikan kepada yang lainnya. Sebagai substansi, jiwa adalah immortal; ia tidak dapat hancur karena eksistensinya berasal dari eksistensi sang Absolut. Untuk tiba pada pencapaian gagasan Aquinas mengenai jiwa maka metode yang digunakan adalah analisa teks, historisme dan ekplanasi.

2025, Rhea Classical Review

With this volume, Brian Gronewoller helpfully reveals new avenues of research into the profound conceptual relationship between rhetorical concepts and Augustinian theology. As such, this book should appeal to historians, scholars of classical rhetoric, and historical and constructive theologians interested in how Augustine’s Latin rhetorical context influenced his theology at a deep and hitherto unexplored level.

2025, Polemos. Materiali di filosofia e critica sociale

This article aims to investigate the global origins of neoliberalism outside of Europe and the United States, analyzing the specific case of Argentina. Examining the early Argentine neoliberal institutions and journals, the first part of the article analyzes not only the networks that facilitated the visits of Western neoliberal intellectuals to Latin America and the translation and dissemination of their ideas, but also the transformation of these ideas into ideological weapons against the local forms of state dirigisme: Peronism and developmentalism. The second part focuses on Friedrich von Hayek's lectures in Argentina, the arguments he presented and the contradictions it faced, particularly legitimizing the temporary suspension of the rule of law to restore market order outside Western democracies.

2025

An interview/conversation between Prof. Jude Chua and myself on Heidegger and Aquinas (and education). The first in a series.

2025

TGreek culture seems to be the outcome of Athenian light. Indeed, the interplay of the trio - the one, the true, and the good to which is added the beautiful - is a hallmark of Greek culture. It contrasts with the tantra of Kashmir Shaivism, one of the great schools of Hindu thought, long forgotten but rediscovered only a few decades ago. This view from Kashmir fits in with the particular philosophy which I espouse, for Christianity is essentially a religion of paradox. In this sense it is essentially tantric. It is by experiencing paradox that the Christian arrives at the ultimate truth.

2025, Forum Philosophicum

This paper asks whether there are grounds for viewing Girard’s work as a tragic vision, and explores the criteria and contexts that might figure in such an investigation. Mimetic anthropology is built on references to the tragic per- spective, but its tragic aspect is complex and diaphanous in respect of its struc- turing and dynamics. Its framework is difficult to explore without engaging with contemporary Christian theological thought—something that significantly affects its implications. As for the latter, the transformative potential of Girard’s tragic anthropology, directly engendered by its critical approach to its own theses, tends to shatter the stability of its assumptions. Therefore, from the earliest interpreta- tions of ancient tragic drama, through the pitfalls of the notion of sacrifice and the dialogue with the philosophy of existence and dramatic theology, all the way to the so-called apocalyptic phase in Girard’s thought, we can observe shifting relationships betwee...

2025, Verlag Karl Alber (Studies on Triadic Ontology and Trinitarian Philosophy, vol. 1)

This volume gathers contributions from the 2021 New Trinitarian Ontologies Panel in Münster and the 2023 Persons from the Trinity Conference in Prague. The first section introduces Trinitarian ontology as a novel approach bridging the analytical and continental divide. The second section demonstrates that it is genealogically rooted in the theological transformation of philosophy during late antiquity and medieval philosophy. The third section connects these traditions with the 20th century project of Trinitarian ontology, asking what is new about Trinitarian ontology. Finally, the fourth section focuses on the anthropological and political contexts in which the Trinitarian transformation of philosophy is taking place today.

2025

These are three commentaries or reflections on Aristotle's "The Rhetoric." The issues are what make for a "good" commonwealth, and how does one construct and deliver a good speech or rhetoric.

2025

As readers and interpreters, how might our understanding of the New Testament change if, unlike historicism with its colonizing agenda and its focus on ancient contexts, we took contemporary global crises, including mass incarceration, a pervasive culture of torture, the HIV pandemic, and the legacies of enslavement, as our starting point for reading biblical texts? Luis Menéndez-Antuña demonstrates how a cultural studies approach that centers twenty-first-century queer existence and experiences of suffering illuminates rather than obscures ancient New Testament contexts. Each chapter weaves together a biblical text, different works of art, and a political crisis. This hermeneutical approach bridges the abyss between the past and present, the Global North and the Global South, biblical scholarship, humanities, and social sciences. Readers coming to the New Testament text with political and ethical concerns will find new emancipatory strategies, making this volume essential reading for scholars and students.

2025

Articolo pubblicato in Salesianum (2025)

2025, Wrocławski Przegląd Teologiczny / Wrocław Theological Review

The article is intended as a kind of apologia for the propositional model of Revelation. In the first part, the propositional Revelation is contrasted with the manifestational models of Revelation, which, as proved, are contingent on propositions. The reduction of the propositional Revelation to a strictly doctrinal Revelation is also criticised. The second part presents different theological opinions on the meaning of the change towards Revelation made in the Constitution on Divine Revelation. Attention was also drawn to the different understandings of the relationship of the concept of Revelation in the documents of Vatican I and Vatican II. The next part focuses on the constitutions Dei Filius (Vatican I) and Dei Verbum (Vatican II) from the perspective of the “hermeneutics of the reform”, emphasising in particular the presence of the propositional dimension of Revelation in the documents of both Councils. It also highlights the fact that the two poles of Revelation, personalistic and propositional, are present in both documents. In conclusion, the answer to the question posed in the title is positive; issues are identified that could contribute to the development of a propositional model of revelation: the liturgy with its propositional dimension, the propositional dimension of the Bible related to the eschatological purpose of the inspired writings and the cataphatic and apophatic dimension of the written word of God. /
W artykule dokonano swego rodzaju apologii propozycjonalnego modelu Objawienia. W pierwszym paragrafie ukazano Objawienie propozycjonalne na tle manifestacyjnych modeli Objawienia, które, jak się okazało, nie mogą obejść się bez twierdzeń propozycjonalnych. Poddano również krytyce sprowadzanie Objawienia propozycjonalnego do Objawienia stricte doktrynalnego. W drugiej części zaprezentowano różne opinie teologiczne na temat znaczenia zwrotu w ujęciu Objawienia dokonanego w konstytucji o Objawieniu Bożym. Zwrócono również uwagę na różne rozumienie relacji koncepcji Objawienia w dokumentach Soboru Watykańskiego I i Soboru Watykańskiego II. W kolejnym paragrafie odczytano konstytucje Dei Filius (Sobór Watykański I) i Dei verbum (Sobór Watykański II) z perspektywy „hermeneutyki reformy”, akcentując zwłaszcza obecność propozycjonalnego wymiaru Objawienia w dokumentach obu soborów. Uwypuklono także fakt, że w obu dokumentach obecne są dwa bieguny Objawienia, personalistyczny i propozycjonalny. W zakończeniu odpowiedziano na tytułowe pytanie pozytywnie i wskazano możliwe zagadnienia mogące przysłużyć się rozwojowi propozycjonalnego modelu Objawienia: liturgię z jej propozycjonalnym wymiarem, propozycjonalny wymiar Biblii związany z eschatologicznym celem pism natchnionych oraz katafatyczno-apofatyczny wymiar spisanego słowa Bożego.

2025

Christos Yannaras é um filósofo e teólogo grego que faz parte da chamada corrente neopatrística do pensamento ortodoxo. A corrente neo-patrística foi fundada pelos teólogos da diáspora russa, nomeadamente Georges Florovsky, Vladimir Lossky, John Meyendorff, etc. Tendo sido formada como reação à catividade da teologia ortodoxa por formas ocidentais e escolásticas de fazer teologia, ou seja, visou recuperar a perspectiva ortodoxa, que estava refém de um intelectualismo abstracto que lhe era estranho. Deste modo, a teologia neo-patrística recuperou a concepção apofática de Deus e dos entes, assente na distinção entre essência e energia. Tal concepção tem como resultado uma abordagem existencial e experiencial à Verdade, em contraposição com uma abordagem abstracta sobre a mesma. É precisamente essa abordagem apofática e experiencial que é o tema deste trabalho. De acordo com Christos Yannaras, o conhecimento não lida como uma essência em si, mas sim com uma essência em relação, ou seja, uma essência que se faz presente para um outro no acto de ex-tase (auto-transcedência). Isto significa que nós não conhecemos os entes como essências, mas sim como presenças, sendo a presença um ato pessoal e existencial. A natureza é pessoal porque só existe nas pessoas e são estas que a revelam ao agirem naturalmente. Deus só existe enquanto Trindade de Pessoas e não como uma essência impessoal. Por isso, são as Pessoas Divinas que revelam a essência que Lhes é comum, e não o contrário, ou seja, as pessoas têm prioridade sobre a essência. A natureza é sempre conhecida na experiência da revelação do outro, que não revela apenas a sua natureza (espécie universal), mas também aquilo que lhe é próprio enquanto pessoa ou hipóstase, ou seja, o nosso contacto com a natureza universal é sempre mediado pela particularidade das hipóstases. Assim, a natureza é o conteúdo das pessoas, conteúdo esse que se revela de forma única em cada pessoa. São Máximo diz que cada particular está unido ao universal de forma única e irrepetível.

2025

I was interviewed for a Europe-based website called Resetdoc.org.

2025, Adamantius

In the following pages, as announced in the introduction to the thematic section, the reader will nd the speeches of the participants in the nal round table, preceded by the questions that had been brought to their attention.

2025, Verbum Vitae

The article examines the Johannine foundation of the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est. It shows how Benedict XVI drew heavily on the Augustinian exegesis of the Johannine literature (with a particular focus on the First Epistle of John). The analysis follows the three fundamental elements that the Pope identifies at the beginning of the document, comparing the texts of the two authors (St. Augustine and Benedict XVI): the lexical clarification of eros and agape, the interaction between the love of God and the love of neighbor, and finally the pneumatological foundation of love. Then, starting from this last element, the article proposes to interpret the second part of the Encyclical as a pneumatological ecclesiology that the Pope presented to the Church at the beginning of his pontificate.

2025, The 41th Annual Aquinas Lecture

With D'ailleurs, la révélation, Jean-Luc Marion sets out to use phenomenology as the basis for a complete overhaul of the theology of Revelation. Through the prism of a binary re-reading of the history of this treatise, which first appeared in modern times, he proposes to replace the “epistemological”, “conceptual” and “metaphysical” interpretation that has dominated until now on the basis of the foundations laid down by Thomas Aquinas with the logic of love, of “uncovery”, “metalogic against metaphysics”, which, in his view, is the only way to restore Revelation to itself. The theologian is entitled to question the relevance of such a dialectical opposition. Marion, in the name of phenomenology, rightly values the role of affectivity, the will and God himself in the “uncovery” that Revelation brings about. But he seems to be unaware that these elements, which he rightly draws from Augustine or William of St Thierry and, even higher still, from Scripture, are also at the heart of theological faith as expounded by Thomas Aquinas, as the gateway for the Word of God to enter the human heart. So far from leading to a dialectical opposition between two artificially reconstructed models, an authentically historical and theological re-reading can help phenomenology to deploy its services in a less exclusivist and more appropriate way.

2025

In the last ten years, discussions of certain traditional Catholic principles regarding politics have had a significant revival, particularly amongst Catholics of a conservative or traditionalist persuasion both within Academia as well as in wider discourse. Many Catholic thinkers apply these principles to the broader 'post-liberal question'. In this paper I make a brief analysis of these trends.

2025, Annali di Scienze Religiose

This annotated bibliography details the publications dedicated to the life and works of Joachim of Fiore, to the development of his hermeneutics and to the influence of his works on other authors. For the latter, the bibliography includes only the studies that show a consistent interest in the figure and the thought of Joachim. Studies concerned with Joachimite authors that show no interest in the analysis of Joachim’s influence on their thinking have not been included. The entries are ordered alphabetically by the surname of the author. Each study is presented with a comment to highlight the content of interest.

2025, The Eleventh Commandment

The drama of the new universal status of humanity is its twosome with God (without the mediation of prophets and priests). The mystery of this condition is that formerly people were more secure against the curse due to their lives in constant terror: an old-testamental syndrome. Now that Christ has won a universal victory over fear and death, man is left one on one with his choice.

2025, JoCT

Journal of Classical Theology (JoCT) offers a platform to facilitate rigorous theological discussion pertaining to the retrieval of and advancements in classical theology. The model of classical theology this journal seeks to retrieve... more

2025, Sacra

This article explores René Girard’s anthropological perspective on religion, extending its application beyond conventional religious spheres to encompass broader societal phenomena. Girard’s theory illuminates how mimetic processes influence cultural norms and institutions, particularly in the formation of religious practices and societal structures. At the core of Girard’s framework lies the notion of the scapegoat mechanism, whereby communal tensions are alleviated through the scapegoating of a sacrificial victim, temporarily restoring social harmony. This article not only examines Girard’s viewpoint but also critically engages with post- structuralist and substantive approaches to religion in religious studies. It will also contend how Girard’s mimetic theory provides a valuable lens for analyzing the intricate dynamics of religion and societal order as it offers significant insights into the nexus of sacred beliefs, violence, and cultural narratives in contemporary contexts, underscoring the profound impact of religion on human behavior and social cohesion.

2025, Communio

Filozoficko-teologický koncept postmoderného teologického hnutia Radikálna ortodoxia je už možno viacerým čitateľom v našom prostredí známy. Nevyšlo síce veľa štúdií, ale prehľad o základných princípoch tohto hnutia, ako aj o vízii jeho zakladateľa Johna Milbanka bol predstavený: v Teologických textoch v preklade francúzskeho článku Francka Damoura 1 ; Jakub Ort sa vo svojom článku venoval predstaveniu kresťanskej metafyziky podľa tohto hnutia 2 a ja som vo svojom článku predstavil Radikálnu ortodoxiu pre slovenského čitateľa, kde som priamo reagoval na Ortovu štúdiu 3 . Radikálna ortodoxia ponúkla originálnu postmodernú reakciu na sekularizmus, ktorá ale zároveň chcela byť návratom k ortodoxii postavenej najmä na Augustínovi, Tomášovi Akvinskom či moderných teológoch razenia Henriho de Lubaca. Úspech či neúspech takéhoto unikátneho pokusu nepatrí do tejto štúdie. Výnimočnosť jednej z téz Radikálnej ortodoxie ale stojí za pristavenie sa: Milbank argumentuje, že na to, aby sa ukončila "vláda" nesprávneho smerovania moderného (aj postmoderného) uvažovania vo filozofii je potrebný návrat participatívnej ontológie. Tento návrat nemá za úlohu oddialiť teológiu od súčasného sveta myslenia, ale naopak ponúknuť riešenie na praktické otázky z oblasti krásy, kultúry, politiky, ktoré zjavne nedokáže plnohodnotne ponúknuť sekularizmus. V tejto štúdii sa teda zameriame na predstavenie participatívnej ontológie v konkrétnom aspekte: v sakramentalizme Radikálnej ortodoxie,

2025

Santo Agostinho no pensamento de J.-L. Marion... 5 simples, mas antes, complexa e, fundamentalmente, por duas razões: a primeira, prende-se com o legado filosófico-teológico da longa tradição greco-latina, que tem como pano de fundo a questão do ser e da sua estreita relação com a questão de Deus. Trata-se de entender a relação fundamental, neste campo, da intrincada relação histórica entre a metafísica do Ser e a Revelação. A segunda, prende-se como o estado actual do mundo contemporâneo, dito pós-moderno, relativamente, à situação da metafísica ocidental enquanto onto-teo-logia e enquanto idolátrica. No primeiro caso, estamos a montante desta investigação e da história filosófica que se iniciou na Grécia antiga, no segundo, encontramo-nos a jusante desta investigação e desta história do ser e da sua especulação filosófica como tal. Todavia, não é a única obra em que a relação entre filosofia e teologia se afrontam e se 'confrontam' no espaço histórico que lhes deu origem, que as consolidou, e que, finalmente, as abriu ao mundo de hoje.A importância do questionamento metafísico e ontológico cartesiano é, seguramente, o responsável pela necessidade de se tocar no problema da relação fundamental do ser e do não ser, ou seja, da questão do ser e do amor. Na verdade, três outras obras estão nesta linha do Dieu sans l'être, onde a tradição metafísica ocidental é posta em diálogo com a metafísica pós-moderna. Trata-se das obras: L'idole et la distance: cinq études 2 La croisée du visible 3 e, posteriormente, Prolégomènes à la charité de 1986 4 . Por último,Le phénomène érotique , que, de certa forma é o desembocar de uma reflexão na pósmodernidade do fenómeno erótico. Tendo em conta este amplo e vasto universo filosófico de J.-L. Marion, concentremo-nos, então, no objectivo que nos propomos, na análise dos três primeiros capítulos de Dieu

2025

Christian theology, in contrast to other theologies that are set apart from it, begins with the Incarnation. It begins in this manner precisely because it is in the Incarnation that we as humans find ourselves addressed by the Word of God. Human language about God does not come from a void but is rather a response to the address that is put to us in Jesus Christ the Word of God. Moreover, this word is a "living" Word precisely because it is God's Word and because it is a Word become flesh. Systematic theology, if it wishes to proceed "on the right/proper foot" must proceed from the doctrine of the incarnation because it is the first step in God's self-revelation as a God who saves through the person of Jesus Christ, thus Christian theology. If we say the wrong things about God and Jesus Christ at this point in our theology-that is, at the point of the Word entering into this world-we will end up saying the wrong kinds of things all the way down. This doesn't mean that we will have a proper theology if only we get the incarnation right, but it does mean that we must carefully approach this particular topic. To do so, this essay will join the conversation of others who have approached this topic with care, sensitivity and creativity. Our efforts will be informed and guided by a supposed conversation between the work of Reformed theologian Karl Barth, an Oxford conversation called "Radical Orthodoxy", and the wellknown Mennonite theologian John H. Yoder. The goal/thesis of this essay is to argue that Yoder provides a helpful move beyond the anthropocentrism of Radical Orthodoxy and the "hovering God" of Barth's "radical freedom" by speaking about radical non-violent participation in a radically committed-incarnate God. This conversation will take place in three parts. First we will explore Karl Barth's response to German liberal humanism and his response to his mentors and teachers during the rise of Nazism in Germany. His theological response includes a re-assertion of the radical freedom of God from humanity even as God freely chooses to reveal God-self in the Word, Jesus Christ. Part two will explore the work of theologians in the Radical Orthodoxy conversation with respect to their critical reading of Karl Barth, their view of the incarnation, and their account of human participation that moves beyond the "hovering God" that is pictured by Barth. In the final section, our efforts will focus on John H. Yoder's book Karl Barth and the Problem of War where he points out the problems in Barth's radically free God and his ethics of war and peace. We will also explore to what extent Yoder's theology and ethics help us move beyond the problems found in Barth and Radical Orthodoxy. Our conclusion will summarize how Yoder's project allows for both a radical freedom and a radical commitment/incarnation; namely, that the God who addresses humanity does so straightforwardly in the person of Jesus Christ, such that human Nachfolge is an actual participation in the triune God. Yoder's account of non-violent doxological praise offers us the "economy of response" that eludes Radical Orthodoxy precisely because Yoder's account invites us to follow and worship the slain Lamb who is Worthy. In the end, Radical Orthodoxy invites us merely to follow ourselves as we humans alone carry the burden of telling "the better story" in a postmodern world of narratives. Karl Barth's story cannot be told without reference to the teachers and mentors that shaped his early theology and later also presented him with a theological crisis. One of those teachers was Adolf Harnack (1851-1930), who taught church history at Berlin,

2025

In the preface to Waiting for Godot, David Toole raises the "question concerning the character of a politics adequate to the task of living the good life in the face of suffering". (p. xiv) Not following any particular method, Toole chooses to read numerous texts closely and imaginatively to see if they might provide answers to his question. In the following chapters of his book Toole outlines three different -albeit related -kinds of politics: nihilism, tragedy and apocalypse. In the following paragraphs I will summarize Toole's book and then provide a critical analysis of Waiting for Godot, including its insights and challenges to the Radical Orthodoxy conversation. Toole begins his book by telling his readers about a play that was performed in the city of Sarajevo. The play is Waiting for Godot and it is a story of two fellows named Estragon and Vladimir. Toole also situates his story (the play and the book as a whole) in the philosophical debate on meaning via MacIntyre's engagement with Nietzsche. He asks the question: what meaning can the performance of a play like Waiting for Godot have for people amidst terrible suffering? Isn't this just fooling around in the face of evil? Toole offers an account of life in the face of suffering that shows how staging a play like Waiting for Godot acts as a politics; that is, a way of ordering life (and death) to make it meaningful in the face of suffering and evil. Toole begins by offering an account of Nihilism. Toole takes a closer look at Friedrich Nietzsche. He observes that Nietzsche differentiates between complete nihilism and incomplete nihilism; and that complete nihilism can be further divided into an active or passive form. (p. 36) Active nihilism is a celebration of the loss of higher values and a seeking-to-destroy the old value system. Toole writes that it is the active form of nihilism that can best describe Nietzsche and is also the way Nietzsche viewed himself as a nihilist. Toole's discussion of Nietzsche's form of nihilism is detailed and cannot be described in full here. It should be noted that this 'complete active' form of nihilism is linked to Toole's account of tragedy. Toole's suggestion that Nietzsche's metaphysics should be labelled as tragic sets up his next discussion on Milbank in which Toole makes the claim that Milbank has misunderstood Nietzsche to the extent that Nietzsche is pictured as a 'complete passive' nihilist in Milbank's work. In a rather complex narration Toole begins to show his readers that the story of nihilism and the postmodern problem is more complex than the supposed dualism: the illusions of truthful foundations versus the resignation to total difference. Toole suggests that Milbank's account of the problem of nihilism is based on problematic readings of several writers, especially Gilles Deleuze. (p. 77-79) In outnarrating the ontology of violence so foundational to modernism and also nihilism Milbank sets up a straw man against which to offer an ontology of peace -the gift of Christ in the incarnation. Yet Toole points out that this Christic option becomes more complicated for Milbank. An important focal criticism that Toole levels against Milbank is regarding Milbank's arrival at an undecidability when considering the reality of suffering and violence -especially violence and abuse within the church -and how this reality does not correspond to Milbank's ontology of peace. It is noted that Milbank, at crucial parts in his argument, uses the language of tragedy as a word to describe the character of the church in its hellish rebelliousness. (p. 81) Toole suggests that this tragic aspect of Milbank's work places him in much closer alignment to Nietzsche's own account than Milbank realizes.

2025

John Milbank begins his essay on Knowledge with these words, "Modern theology on the whole accepts that philosophy has its own legitimacy, its own autonomy, apart from faith." (p.21) This modern assumption is problematic not only for Milbank but for all of the writers in this collection of essays. Instead, the writers in this book propose that only theology can reconfigure the relationship between revelation and reason in such a way that true participation is a gift that can be received because of God's radical love for humanity. If that in itself fails to garner interest, then hopefully this review will clarify why Radical Orthodoxy is a conversation that may yet provide a helpful move beyond modernity and postmodernity. In this review I will explore some of the essays in this book and focus on major themes that come to light. This book and each of its themes deserve more attention than I can give them here. In his essay on Knowledge, John Milbank points to the work of Hamann and Jacobi as the kind of theological critique required to put philosophy back in its proper place. According to Milbank this 'proper place' is under God and the discourse about God -theology. Milbank offers a critique on Barth. Barth, by his strict division between theology and philosophy, lends philosophy an autonomous space that only subverts Barth's own desire of retrieving theology as the pure science with God as its object. For Milbank this becomes problematic because philosophy -more specifically epistemology -speaks to our ability to know things, even things theological. By separating theology from philosophy Barth has given over to 'secular society' the keys to sense making. As an alternative he points to the work of Hamann and Jacobi who are "the source not of neo-orthodoxy, but of a more genuinely anti-liberal radical orthodoxy, which does not hesitate to argue even with philosophy itself and which, just because it is more mediating, is also less accommodating than the theology of Barth." (p. 23, emphasis his) The work of Duns Scotus is largely to blame for the creation of the 'secular space' by the division of philosophy and theology. It was Scotus who was able to conceive, for the first time, the idea of Being apart from the Christian notion of being created and the theology that this implies. (p.23) This split was, in numerous ways, a leading factor in the creation of secularism in its modern and postmodern guises. A fine summary of Milbank's critique and new proposal is provided in footnote 49 on page 37: "…reason cannot ground the attempted purely rational disclosure of being, and rationally the disclosure by faith remains possible. Theology can evaluate philosophy… theology saves reason and fulfils and preserves philosophy whereas philosophy left to itself, brings itself… to its own end." (Emphasis his) John Montag explores knowledge further by focusing his attention on Revelation. Montag mentions that the way this word has functioned for modernity has been divorced from its roots in patristic and medieval writings. The author of this essay works to retrieve revelation not as a set of presuppositions or doctrines but as a way of seeing all that exists (p. 43). He points to Thomas for whom, "revelation has to do primarily with one's perspective on things in light of one's final end." (p. 43) and later, "Thomas provides a consistent formal notion of revelation as a kind of illumination, a power of seeing. " (p.47) In a culture of fully abstracted art, surface meanings, chaotic music and valueoriented pluralism, Montag's presentation of revelation as a way of seeing the world beyond itself, as it participates in Being, is a breath of fresh air. We truly do live in a world "shot through with its own giftedness" (p.49)

2025, Mesmidade - Ensaio sobre a possível natureza de um divino

2024, Verbum Vitae

The following text is a review of the book by Maciej Raczyński-Rożek "Dwie ręce Ojca" [Two Hands of the Father], that presents christology of the Spirit in the thought of Bulgakov and Balthasar

2024, Modern Theology

Book Review

2024, American Academy of Religion

This paper recovers the value for contemporary Christian spirituality of John of the Cross’s account of the transformation of the self in the contemplative ascent, in the light of the widespread general agreement in modern cognitive and neuroscience research of the integral role played by the emotions in human cognition, action and motivation. The transformation in love which takes place in union informs John’s analysis of the various ways in which the sensory and spiritual faculties (in modern terms, the emotions) are transformed in the contemplative ascent. Such a vision, the paper argues, can satisfy the implications of contemporary cognitive and neuroscience concerning the continuing and yet transformed activity of the ‘emotions’ in contemplation.

2024, Society for the Study of Theology

This paper proposes that John of the Cross’s emphasis on the ‘silence’ necessary in the soul for God to act is grounded in John’s belief in the silence of the Word who is already dwelling in each person. It suggests two ways in which study of John’s understanding of silence enriches the highly insightful reading given by Rowan Williams (2002), in which John’s account of the individual’s growing relationship with God results for the individual in both an identification with Christ’s dereliction and an entry into the ‘deflections of desire’ within the Trinity. In the first place, it brings into focus the indispensable role that silence plays for John in its paradoxical relation to speech about God, language which is distinct from his discussions of negativity or dereliction. Secondly, it makes clear that John understands the spiritual path to be taken by the contemplative as an entry into Christ’s life – not simply in the dark nights (which Williams emphasises) but concomitantly in the interior desire for the Christ-like silence, stillness and peace which John calls for as necessary remedies for our own muddled and misdirected interior lives.

2024

A linguistic model of communication is preeminent in Western culture, and part of its power arises from the Western preoccupation with word, particularly the Christian aleditation on the Word, the second person of the Trinity. Augustine's i*ilosophy and theology of the word made him a proponent of a linguiltic epistemology: all knowledge is knowledge of the word and words are signs of reality. Anselm shifted the grounds of the discussion of the word-Wird metaphor from rhetoric to grammar. He worked from within language and built. up his argument from a series of grammatical and logical equivalences, making the issue t:ge definition of the Word. Peter Lombard's treatment of the word-Word metaphor dealt with predication about the Trinity and the application of the "Categories" of Aristotle to the Trinity. Thomas Aquinas changes the notion and scope of the inner word and its metaphorical relation to the divine Word by substituting Aristotelian epistemology for Augustinian. Aquinas also blends poetry and theology in his treatment of the Word, so that what he attempts to explain theologically he evokes poetically. The word-Word metaphor reveals a view of communication common to the Middle Ages: communication always reveals the inner, making it concrete. (SRT)

2024, Religions

In this study, I explore the area of possibility of a historiography that recognizes and incorporates the sacred as an essential part of how reality is conceived. The opportunity is the crisis of the secularization
thesis and the loosening of secularism’s grip on historiography that open the space for alternative historiographical approaches. These alternative approaches would prioritize understanding the sacred on its own terms, rather than subordinating it to secular explanations.

2024, Philosophical Theologies in South Africa

In this chapter, I explore what it means that Chesterton is always on the lookout for joy, for this is surely something that even the most casual reading of his work brings to light. In this, I argue that his preoccupation with joy is in fact bound up in what Marshall McLuhan suggests is his tireless preoccupation with formal causality. I argue, therefore, that there is a link between a particular metaphysical concern and a certain attitude of mind, or perhaps a certain posture towards being. Chestertonian hilarity, in other words, offers a kind of perceptual key to the joy that transcends both comedy and tragedy.

2024, published as ch. 27 in "History and Eschatology in John Scottus Eriugena and his Time. Eds. J. McEvoy and M. Dunne, Leuven, University Press,

64. ‘The Return of the Body into the Soul. Philosophical Musing on the Resurrection’ in History and Eschatology in John Scottus Eriugena and his Time. Eds. J. McEvoy and M. Dunne, Leuven, University Press, 2002, 581-609.

2024

This paper examines the deconstructive quality of Jesus' teachings through a multidisciplinary, postmodern lens, emphasizing their ability to challenge societal norms, religious institutions, and systems of power and authority. Drawing on the philosophical framework of deconstruction as articulated by Jacques Derrida, the study explores how Jesus' parables, sayings, and actions dismantle traditional binaries and expose the limitations of human constructs. The teachings of Jesus are presented not as static moral directives but as dynamic, transformative invitations to reimagine relationships, community, and divine encounters. By analyzing key moments in Jesus' ministrysuch as his critique of legalism, the cleansing of the temple, and his interactions with power structuresthis paper highlights the radical inclusivity and justice inherent in his message. The work contributes to contemporary theological discourse by demonstrating how a deconstructive reading of Jesus' teachings opens new pathways for faith, praxis, and reflection in a complex and pluralistic world.

2024, Quaker Religious Thought

2024

«The paradox of secularization: the meaning of the girardian concept of "violence" through the distinction between mimetic and symbolic pressure».