The Poverty of Radical Orthodoxy

Synopsis: Radical Orthodoxy, whose founding father is John Milbank, claims that God has been pushed to the margins in modernity and that a false and misleading neo-theology has taken hold that needs to be revisited and contested. It is this return to the premodern that often leads theologians to have reservations about Radical Orthodoxy when they might otherwise have some sympathy for many of its positions. Radical Orthodoxy, like most traditional theology, claims that the power of God is in all creation and that God sits everywhere for all to partake of. But there appears to be a failure to see that the church and theology do not set in place systems that live out this basic assumption. Liberation theology, while sharing much of the same assumption that God is everywhere and to be shared, at the same time engages in a critique of the structures that claim to facilitate this vision, and finds them wanting. From here, then, liberation theologians attempt to refigure our understanding of shared power in order to broaden the vision, while it may be argued that Radical Orthodoxy simply restates the assumption with little political critique of the issues. Perhaps this point explains why this book is titled The Poverty of Radical Orthodoxy rather than Radical Error! Endorsements: "These essays are a philosophico-theological treasure trove, in telling against Radical Orthodoxy's trenchant critique of modernity and its Tertullianist exclusivism model of theological understanding. Their incisive arguments expose shortcomings in RO's interpretation of a range of reference points that include, for example, Hamman, Kierkegaard, nominalism, liberation theology, feminist theology, Hindu bhakti tradition, and pacifism. Well worth reading for studies in philosophy of religion and theology." --Abrahim H. Khan Professor and Advanced Degree Director Trinity College, University of Toronto "For anyone interested in contemporary theology and philosophy of religion this book will be exceedingly helpful. The debate here with Radical Orthodoxy involves several kinds of feminists, postmodernists, secularists, a variety of Christian theologians, and even defenders of Scotus and Ockham." --David Goicoechea Professor Emeritus Brock University Author Biography: Lisa Isherwood is Professor of Feminist Liberation Theologies and Director of the Institute for Theological Partnerships at the University of Winchester, UK. She has authored or edited eighteen books, including The Power of Erotic Celibacy: Queering Heteropatriarchy (2006) and The Fat Jesus: Feminist Explorations in Boundaries and Transgressions (2008). Marko Zlomislic is professor of philosophy at Conestoga College, Institute of Advanced Learning in Kitchener, Canada. He has authored and edited a number of books, including Jacques Derrida's Aporetic Ethics (2007), The Sorrowful Mysteries: A Postmodern Poetics (1998), Zarathustra's Joyful Annunciations (1995). He is currently writing a manuscirpt entitled, Crossing out the Crucifix.