1.
Is “Radical Orthodoxy” Like “Jumbo Shrimp”? An Introduction The Promise and Perils of Post-Secular Theology

2.
A Little Background <ul><li>My introduction to Postmodernity </li></ul>

3.
Primary Questions <ul><li>How Radical is Radical Orthodoxy? </li></ul><ul><li>How Orthodox is Radical Orthodoxy? </li></ul><ul><li>Is the emphasis on Radical or Orthodoxy ? </li></ul><ul><li>What are the promises and the perils of Radical Orthodoxy? </li></ul>

4.
Radical Orthodox Theologians <ul><li>John Milbank: Theology and Social Theory </li></ul><ul><li>Catherine Pickstock </li></ul><ul><li>Graham Ward </li></ul><ul><li>William Cavanaugh </li></ul><ul><li>James K. A. Smith </li></ul>

5.
What is it? <ul><li>Radically Post-modern </li></ul><ul><li>Brazenly Theological </li></ul><ul><li>Unapologetically Confessional </li></ul><ul><li>Aggressively Social </li></ul>

6.
I. Radically Post-Modern “ Weird for the sake of Weird”

7.
Pre-Modernity Reason Revelation

8.
Modernity Reason Phenomena Noumena

9.
The Wrong Turn of Modernity <ul><li>Foundationalist Epistemology </li></ul><ul><li>Quest for Rational Certainty </li></ul><ul><li>Loss of participatory ontology </li></ul><ul><li>Loss of the historical (time) </li></ul><ul><li>Loss of the catholic (universal) </li></ul>

10.
Leads to… <ul><li>Fragmentation of society </li></ul><ul><li>Breakdown of communication </li></ul><ul><li>Loss of wonder and beauty </li></ul><ul><li>Textual nihilism </li></ul><ul><li>Individualistic narcissism </li></ul><ul><li>Rejection of dogmatic/confessional theology </li></ul><ul><li>Results in a “Religion Without Religion” (Derrida) </li></ul>

11.
Jean-Francois Lyotard <ul><li>Postmodernism: “incredulity towards </li></ul><ul><li>Metanarratives” </li></ul>

12.
Jacques Derrida <ul><li>There is Nothing Outside the Text! </li></ul>

13.
Michel Foucault <ul><li>Power is Knowledge </li></ul>

14.
The Primary Culprits: The Rejection of Revelation and the Loss of Participatory Ontology <ul><li>Duns Scotus’ Knowledge by Abstraction versus Augustine’s Knowledge by Illumination </li></ul>

15.
Example of the End of Modernity: Pruitt-Igoe Housing Demolition

19.
II. Brazenly Theological <ul><li>Post-Secular: All theory (social, political, economic, philosophical) is confessional/theological </li></ul><ul><li>“ All thought which brackets out God is ultimately nihilistic” </li></ul><ul><li>Christian theology returns to being the queen of the disciplines </li></ul><ul><li>Theology must be non-accommodationist </li></ul>

20.
<ul><li>Christian theology now offers a discourse able to position and overcome nihilism itself. This is why it is so important to reassert theology as a master discourse; theology, alone, remains the discourse of non-mastery. </li></ul><ul><li>— John Milbank </li></ul>

21.
Recovering Metaphysics <ul><li>Plato </li></ul><ul><li>Augustine </li></ul><ul><li>Aquinas </li></ul>

22.
III. Rigorously Confessional <ul><li>A new ad fontes: Ressourcement </li></ul><ul><li>“ Abandoning all scholastic attempts to graft faith onto a universal base of reason [Radical Orthodoxy] instead turns to the church Fathers.” </li></ul><ul><li>— Milbank </li></ul>

23.
IV. Aggressively Social <ul><li>“ Not simply returning in nostalgia to the premodern, it visits sites in which secularism has invested heavily — aesthetics, politics, sex, the body, personhood, visibility, space — and resituates them from a Christian standpoint; that is, in terms of the Trinity, Christology, the Church and the Eucharist.” — Radical Orthodoxy </li></ul>

24.
The Church as Polis <ul><li>Augustine’s City of God </li></ul><ul><li>The church is the only </li></ul><ul><li>authentic polis, because </li></ul><ul><li>it eschews individualism </li></ul><ul><li>“ The church IS a social ethic” </li></ul>

25.
The Promise of Radical Orthodoxy <ul><li>Returns theology to public discourse </li></ul><ul><li>Points out the “confessional” nature of secularism </li></ul><ul><li>Challenges faith/reason dichotomy </li></ul><ul><li>Challenges sacred/secular dualism </li></ul><ul><li>Emphasizes the role of the church in the world </li></ul><ul><li>Attempts a rigorous confessional Christianity within a pluralist, post-secular context </li></ul>

26.
The Perils of Radical Orthodoxy <ul><li>Limits potential for interdisciplinary dialogue(?) </li></ul><ul><li>Lacks clear criterion for Ressourcement ? (which theologian? Which tradition?) </li></ul><ul><li>Undermines the constructive promise of contextual theology (voices from the margins) </li></ul><ul><li>Is it desconstructive enough? Is it reconstructive enough? </li></ul><ul><li>Metaphysics potentially over-rides biblical and systematic theology </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Sophia as warning </li></ul></ul>