Book: The Gift of Difference: Radical Orthodoxy, Radical Reformation

Just published: "The Gift of Difference: Radical Orthodoxy, Radical Reformation", edited by Chris K. Huebner and Tripp York, with a foreword by John Milbank (CMU Press, July 2010):

www.cmu.ca/news/july5giftofdiff.html

Publisher's description (in a press release): "The Gift of Difference is a collection of essays in which theologians such as Craig Hovey, Harry J. Huebner, and D. Stephen Long consider the strengths and weaknesses of Radical Orthodoxy in dialogue with the Radical Reformation tradition. Writers in this volume engage topics such as ecclesiology, martyrdom, worship, oath-taking, peace and violence. In recent years, Radical Orthodoxy has become an important and influential movement in contemporary theology and philosophy. [...] Radical Orthodoxy enlists the resources of classical theology to engage the current strongholds of secular and religious thought. Proponents of Radical Orthodoxy argue that the Enlightenment project to remove reason, ethics, politics and economics from a theological framework culminates in the nihilism of postmodern discourse. They suggest that much contemporary theology is idolatrous in nature because it takes the isolation of such disciplines for granted.

"In the Foreword, John Milbank writes that '[modern Mennonites] see the Church itself as the true polity and (unlike most of the magisterial Reformation) they see the possibility of "living beyond the law" in terms of a new sort of social and political practice.' What might this concrete expression of Christian discipleship have to suggest to a movement like Radical Orthodoxy? What gifts does Radical Orthodoxy offer academics, ministers and laypeople from Radical Reformation tradition? 'This book explores both common and divergent themes between Anabaptist/Mennonite theologians and their counterparts in the Radical Orthodoxy movement,' says co-editor Chris K. Huebner. 'For example, while they jointly reject as false the dualisms characteristic of modernity, the manner in which questions of peace and justice get framed remains an ongoing debate.'"

Endorsements: "What hath the Radical Reformation to do with Anglo-Catholics – especially Anglicans who have a lingering penchant for Christendom? The answer from this book: a lot more than you might expect! Huebner and York have staged a mutually critical interaction between Radical Orthodoxy and Mennonite theology, illuminating both as a result." (James K.A. Smith, Calvin College)

"This book is a breath of fresh air. Retrieving central themes of classical theology, it is both faithful to tradition and innovative, offering a third way between liberalism and conservatism, one which sees theology as critical for public life without privatizing Christianity, on the one hand, or slipping into Constantinianism, on the other." (A. James Reimer, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo)

Chris K. Huebner is Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at the Canadian Mennonite University (CMU).

Tripp York is an Adjunct Instructor of Religious Studies at Western Kentucky University.

Book: Post-Christian Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan

Paul G. Doerksen, "Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christian Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan" (Wipf and Stock, January 2010), with a foreword by P. Travis Kroeker (McMaster University):

http://wipfandstock.com/store/Beyond_Suspicion_PostChristian_Protestant_Political_Theology_in_John_Howard_Yoder_and_Oliver_ODonovan

Publisher's description: "The modern era includes a two-fold tradition of radical suspicion – the suspicion that politicians corrupt morality, and that politics is corrupted by theology. However, such a view has been challenged in recent theological thought which seeks to move beyond such suspicion to recover a constructive role for political theology. By pursuing a critical comparison of the political theologies of John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan, the present work shows how post-Christendom Protestant political theology has attempted to move beyond suspicion without putting forward some hidden attempt to reassert a contemporary version of Christendom. O'Donovan's political theology, written from within the British Anglican tradition, is a bold project in which he attempts to push back the horizons of commonplace secularist politics and open it up theologically, a move that he believes will offer crucial resources for thinking about justice and the common good.

"A related response is presented by Yoder, who, as an American Mennonite, represents Anabaptism. From this more marginal ecclesial location, Yoder's thought stands both as a challenge to regnant liberal notions of the relation of church and state, and as an important interlocutor for O'Donovan's political theology. Yoder argues that political theology entails a particular kind of focus on the church, where the very shape of the church in the world is a public witness for the world, and not first of all a withdrawal from the world. The critical comparison brings to view areas of significant convergence and divergence in understandings of the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the New Testament. O'Donovan and Yoder's respective interpretations of Christendom are also fundamentally divergent, as are their views on the legitimacy of the use of force by government, clearly seen in O'Donovan's support of Just War Tradition and Yoder's promotion of Messianic Pacifism."

Endorsements: "I often observe if there is any alternative to Yoder it is Oliver O'Donovan. So we are in Doerksen's debt for putting Yoder and O'Donovan in conversation. His careful exposition of these thinkers helps us better see the challenges before the church in the world in which we find ourselves." (Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University)

"This study of O'Donovan and Yoder demonstrates more common ground between them than one might have suspected. Doerksen provides a fair and balanced treatment of the Reformed and Anabaptist theo-political traditions in the two persons of two of those traditions' strongest proponents. It deserves careful reading by anyone interested in social ethics done from outside the dominant traditions of political theology." (Craig A. Carter, Tyndale University College)

"In this fine, critical analysis of two very different theological ethicists [...,] Paul Doerksen rescues 'political theology' from its ideological distortion on the right (fascism), on the left (socialism), and in the centre (liberalism), grounding theo-political ethics squarely in scripture and the church as alternative political community. This is an important contribution to the growing literature in politics and theology, one in which political thought and action are grounded in sound biblical theology." (A. James Reimer, University of Waterloo/Conrad Grebel University College)

Paul G. Doerksen is Department Head-Biblical Studies at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, Winnipeg. This book is based on his doctoral dissertation at McMaster University.

The book was apparently published previously by Paternoster Press in 2009.

Journal "Direction": Toward Anabaptist Political Theology

The Spring 2009 issue of the journal "Direction: A Mennonite Brethren Forum" was themed "Toward Anabaptist Political Theology".

Six months after publication of the printed journal, the full-text articles have now become available to read online free of charge:

www.directionjournal.org/toc/?38-1

Articles include "An Anabaptist-Mennonite Political Theology: Theological Presuppositions" (A. James Reimer, formerly Conrad Grebel University College); "Exousiology and Torah: A Suggestion for Mennonite Political Theology with Reference to the Reimer-Yoder Divide" (Jodie Boyer Hatlem, University of Toronto, and Douglas Johnson Hatlem, pastor); "Messianic Political Theology: Yoder contra Redekop" (Travis P. [sic] Kroeker, McMaster University); "A Response to P. Travis Kroeker's 'Messianic Political Theology: Yoder contra Redekop'" (John H. Redekop, Trinity Western University/Wilfrid Laurier University).

The journal's self-description: "Direction journal was begun in 1972 as a partnership among four Mennonite Brethren educational institutions in Canada and the US. Eventually two additional schools joined the group, and the US and Canadian Mennonite Brethren Conferences also provide support. [...] Neither a purely academic journal nor a denominational magazine, Direction highlights the interdependence of Christian reflection and mission."