The turn of Radical Orthodoxy

The limited pressures of the MA course I am currently studying do have the advantage of allowing me a lot of free time to pursue my own theological interests. The latest development in this has been my fixation with the "Radical Orthodoxy" movement. I am reading two books on the subject: "Radical Orthodoxy - a new theology" edited by Pickstock, Milbank & Ward; and, "Introducing Radical Orthodoxy - mapping a post-secular theology" by James KA Smith. For anyone interested in the matter, I would recommend reading these (starting with Smith as he gives a good overview).

One of the premises of Radical Orthodoxy (henceforth RO) is that as part of the Enlightenment religion became a private concern and was no longer an appropriate feature of the public sphere. Alongside this there flourished a range of secular philosophies and disciplines that sought to take religion's place, ie. to make sense of the world and our experience of it. Most (perhaps all) of these disciplines are therefore predicated on ideologies that are necessarily antogonistic to Christian theology. By constructing philosophies that deny God modernity also excludes revelation and so reason becomes the sole vehicle for understanding and sense-making; to use the RO phrase we have here "autonomous reason" - reason that functions without reference to anything else. This, RO claims, has been the development of modernity.

However, theorists now claim we are entering (or, more optimistically, have entered) postmodernity, that is the breakdown of modernity and its absolute claims, including the breakdown of the secular. If this is the case, then Christian theology ought to be able again to take a place in the public sphere (rather than the private) and confidently proclaim its "system" for making sense of the world and our experience, and revelation ought to be valued alongside reason (indeed, as intrinsically connected parts of the same process). But, that this is not yet the case reveals that postmodernity is an arriving phase, rather than one that has been fully realised, and that our current stage is something more akin to hyper-modernity; the final swansong of secular modernity.

Radical Orthodoxy (on my reading) encourages the challenging of this phase and the inauguration of true postmodernity. In postmodernity we will arrive also at the post-secular: Christian theology can confidently proclaim the riches of its tradition and the depth of its insight.

Part of this confident proclamation will be the eschewing of the correlationist project of much "modern" theology. Theology need no longer compete for a voice by conspiring with disciplines (especially modern philosophy some of the social sciences) which are fundametally antithetical to a Theo-logical interpretation of the world. Rather, Christian theology can explain itself in its own terms, rediscovering the riches of its past and reinterpreting in light of the present.

Such an argument (which I have simplified and explained as I understand it) is attractive and convincing. There is more to RO than this so expect more posts on that front...

On a related note, I will be hearing Pickstock and Milbank (two of the founders) at a seminar on Aquinas (who is part of the inspiration of RO) next week. I hope to give you a report of that also.