Being Reconciled

This monograph advances a distinctly theological ontology that challenges both secular reason and liberal theology by reasserting orthodox Christian doctrine as the foundation for understanding being, knowledge, and ethics. Milbank develops his project of "radical orthodoxy" through a series of interconnected essays that collectively argue for the primacy of divine reconciliation in constituting reality itself.

The work's central thesis holds that modernity's separation of nature from grace produces a fundamentally violent ontology that Christianity alone can heal through its participatory metaphysics. Milbank contends that secular reason, far from being neutral, assumes an antagonistic relationship between beings that only Christian theology can overcome through its vision of peaceful difference grounded in the Trinity. He argues that genuine reconciliation—between God and humanity, between individuals, and between communities—requires abandoning autonomous reason for a christological framework where all reality participates in divine being.

Methodologically, Milbank employs genealogical critique to expose the theological origins of supposedly secular concepts while simultaneously engaging in constructive systematic theology. He traces how nominalism and voluntarism corrupted medieval theology, creating the conditions for modernity's false dichotomies between faith and reason, church and state, theology and philosophy. Against postmodern nihilism and liberal accommodation, he proposes a "postmodern critical Augustinianism" that retrieves patristic and medieval sources while engaging contemporary philosophy.

The monograph directly challenges several intellectual positions: secularist assumptions about religious neutrality, Kantian divisions between phenomenal and noumenal realms, and Protestant liberalism's capitulation to modern categories. Milbank particularly critiques Marion's phenomenology of givenness and Derrida's ethics of hospitality as crypto-theological positions that fail to acknowledge their dependence on Christian revelation. He argues these approaches remain trapped within immanent frames that cannot access the transcendent ground necessary for true reconciliation.

This work significantly impacts debates about God by insisting that theological discourse cannot be relegated to private belief but must engage all domains of human thought and practice. Milbank's argument that only Trinitarian theology provides resources for non-violent difference offers a bold alternative to both secular pluralism and religious fundamentalism. His vision positions Christianity not as one worldview among others but as the unique bearer of an ontology of peace that alone makes genuine reconciliation possible. The monograph thus represents a maximalist theological position that refuses any compromise with secular modernity.