Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People

In his renowned work Theology and Social Theory, the now famous contemporary theologian John Milbank claimed that there was in fact no purely secular reality. In Beyond Secular Order he extends this claim from the field of social theory to encompass those of philosophy, political theory and political practice. Arguing that a common set of assumptions underpins both modern belief and action, he traces these theories to mutations in medieval thought, especially associated with Franciscan and then Nominalist theology. By doing so, he demonstrates that modern thinking and performance are based upon a buried set of particular theological perspectives and that even the claim to a space of philosophical and secular autonomy paradoxically depends upon them. Revisiting these connections and critiquing our assumptions begins to hold out the genuine possibility of restoring a prevailing Christian world–view and a Christian global order. Provocative, original, and brilliantly intellectual, Beyond Secular Order shakes the very foundations of how we understand religious and secular thought today.

Acknowledgements ix Preface: The Hidden Dimension of Humanity 1 Sequence on Modern Ontology 19 1 From Theology to Philosophy 19 2 The Four Pillars of Modern Philosophy 28 3 Modern Philosophy: A Theological Critique 49 4 Analogy versus Univocity 50 5 Identity versus Representation 57 6 Intentionality and Embodiment 66 7 Intentionality and Self hood 72 8 Reason and the Incarnation of the Logos 77 9 The Passivity of Modern Reason 81 10 The Baroque Simulation of Cosmic Order 86 11 Deconstructed Representation and Beyond 88 12 Passivity and Concursus 99 13 Representation in Philosophy 106 14 Actualism versus Possibilism 108 15 Influence versus Concurrence 112 16 Transition 113 Sequence on Political Ontology 114 1 Cosmos, Law and Morality 114 2 Metaphysics and Modern Politics 128 3 The Fate of the Rational Animal 137 4 The Irony of Representation 142 5 On Legal Concurrence 152 6 The Fate of the Social Animal 154 7 Representation and Mixed Government 170 8 Bureaucracy and the Formal Distinction 176 9 Form, Matter and Contract 177 10 The Antiquity of Historicism 184 11 The Sovereignty of the Artist 189 12 Eucharistic Creativity and Political Power 195 13 The Conundrum of Kingship 198 14 The Truth of Political Fiction 206 15 The Two Rival Constructions 208 16 Creativity and Mixed Government 211 17 Christological Constitutionalism 214 18 The Fate of the Fabricating Animal 218 19 The Fate of the Beast–Angel 220 20 The Death of Charity 225 21 Augustine’s Three Cities 228 22 Church as Cosmopolis 236 23 Aquinas and Kingship 240 24 The Theology of Ruling 247 25 The Ecumenico–Political Problem 254 26 Supernatural Charity and Global Order 257 27 Socialism Beyond the Left 261 28 Critique of All Materialisms 264 Index 271

John Milbank is Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham, where he also directs the Centre of Theology and Philosophy. Considered one of the leading contemporary theologians, Milbank first gained international recognition with Theology and Social Theory (1990), which laid the theoretical foundations for the movement which later became known as Radical Orthodoxy. In recent years he has collaborated on three books with Creston Davis and the controversial philosopher Slavoj i ek: Theology and the Political: The New Debate (2005), The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic (2009), and Paul’s New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology (2010).