You Tube Theology

In the fourth episode of the third season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with John Milbank, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Politics, and Ethics at the University of Nottingham. Milbank opens by offering his assessment of the current state of theology, the way it is practiced in the academy, the way it is practiced in the Church, and the way it orders and influences life this side of eternity. While Milbank notes he witnessed considerable progress over the course of his life in the ability of theologians to rightly understand their calling, he also acknowledges institutional support for that calling has declined. Even if only for their own selfish institutional benefits, Milbank contends the academy and the Church need to work together to cultivate historically orthodox Christian discourse. Absent such an effort, both will (and perhaps already are) finding themselves grappling with the consequences. Milbank then turns to his own formation as a theologian, the ways history, philosophy, and theology all worked together, and how he came to lead (along with Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward) what is known as Radical Orthodoxy. Its presence is most evident in the thirteen titles comprising the book series published by Routledge. For over a quarter century, however, that movement has also redrawn the relationships theology shares with an ever-increasing range of academic disciplines and professional practices. Milbank then closes by sharing how he understands the commitments that define the theologian’s vocation and ways such a calling can hopefully be of greater service to both the academy and the Church in years to come.