The Radical Orthodoxy Movement

what do you think of the modern radical orthodoxy movement and theology father Aiden nickel seems to be somewhat a part of that but I'm also thinking of people like John Milbank David Bentley Hart and many others you think these thinkers have a potential have a potential to clear the way for Catholic and Orthodox tradition or do you think they are too tainted by the Vatican to theology very good question next no no I'm not no well firstly let me say this about that father Nicholas is probably my favorite living theologian yeah you recommended him I remember previous shows he ultra-realistic even though you said he wouldn't consider himself yeah but it's certainly very platonic he and the other no Bank is very well-known Anglican most of the radical orthodoxy movement a lot Catholics so what is the radical orthodoxy movement I'm not telling oh no the radical orthodoxy movement is exactly what you might guess in the title these are theologians who want to go back to the roots as it were of our faith and then apply them radically to our current life well see radical is a relative term again Celyn shirts talks about this I mean radical pretty innocuous things to perhaps medieval Catholics could be considered radical to exact good American is exactly and let's let's remember what radical ultimately means a return to the roots radix ah it doesn't return to radishes do not be excluded all right it's just it this really isn't about you but you're not excluded no it means we're trained to the roots ultimately and the thing is we I mean as we know ours is a civilization a culture based upon a ton of compromises and these are compromises that have been necessary simply to do business survival the problem is that those compromises are all falling apart so now the question becomes so what are we going to go how then should we live what direction are we are we doing it now unless you're going to say that it's sort of bland colorless compromise is it good in itself which I don't think anybody will do no matter what you believe what are radical or that our experiment saying is that we've taken a wrong turning somewhere it might be the Reformation or might be earlier it might be later and we need to retrace our steps go back to the roots of our problem beyond them and then apply what we learned from that to where we are now and a very good example is again I take advantage for the Nichols two books in particular one is called listen I'm awake which deals with every aspect of life not unlike my own star spangled crown the far side was that applied yes it's the second time who's available from tumblr house calm calm very good it's called the Strasburg oh crap anyway but he does it in a much more theological way in a much richer way you might say than I do and he talks about what is needed to be done really if society is to be saved are there concrete examples for examples I mean obviously because his English is very much concerned with England and it would make seed this example interesting and he'd well he does those of this in the second book of his I'd recommend very strongly the realm hmm which is about as he calls an unpopular argument for the conversion of England which nobody talks about anymore any more than we talk about the conversion of America but he points out one that England is on its way out not unlike the United States and every other western country - if she's to avoid that she has to return to her faith the Catholic faith no less okay now it breaks the English case interesting is that they have in their society and government in the culture all sorts of desiccated remains of a catholic war that have had the interiors flushed out of them while in ela shelves attacked right we always seem to be we're talking about this like that that question the other so and do you think the british monarchy is secretly catholic well yeah which you know is true that's not true yeah it's not true of the census as I said then it's not secretly counting in the sense the Queen Elizabeth and the royal family secretly intend high mass and the depths of Buckingham Palace if part of the shell yeah it's part of the show it's part of what gives the whole thing meaning but that's also true of Parliament it's true with their cities and towns and and they're there shires with the universities with every aspect of life you can see the remnants of the Catholic past just as meaning it you know now it's very important to them and that's one of the differences by the way between Americans and British is that for us things have to be pragmatic for us to be interested in them for us to like them we have a certain contempt for what we consider empty ceremony unless it involves kissing the Liberty Bell or jumping up and down about the Constitution suddenly we get very much like our English cousins but I'm sorry there's a gentleman waving the flag not letting it touch the ground that's us oh yeah yes we do our own empty ceremonial well you really do we pretend there's an empty no we don't be there I don't believe what you're saying so it's a lie Shh think in the words of your you oh I don't like that so it's a lie and anybody I disagree with this Hitler so but no but that thought you did bit just that yeah yeah we all do it it such as the English it's just it's so much easier to see in other people right anyway what is different though between them in us is there are symbols and empty ceremonial are all self made and made up whereas the English to the remnants of something that was real ones and what father Nichols is arguing and you see elements of this and some of the other radical Orthodox is that through the conversion of the nation these things be brought back to life he basically argues you know why can't we have the form and the substance does he think English Aaron the England will be easier to convert because there's more to work with there as compared to America I don't know that he's ever said that but it would seem to make sense okay let's put this way every country has advantages and disadvantages toward evangelization by that I mean there is for every nation in the world has a certain professor even genuine listen preparation for the gospel like for instance with the Japanese it everyone's making a big deal about silence today because it makes Western intellectuals feel good about betraying the faith of their fathers course AZ film right and it makes them feel good about betraying the faith and all that Jesuits in particular of a certain age group love hey but the fact is that in Japan today amongst real Japanese don't be confused with elderly Westerners there is a bit of an uptick of interest in the Japanese mourners there was for instance a castle whose people were all Christian and they rose up and they will recede and killed it's become a big tourist spot for Japanese and if the church Japan were invested in evangelization that interest is exactly the jumping-off point they could use but that's very different for the English fossilised Catholic ceremonial it's very different from the French commute to follow sysm that's all over the place you see every every country has its own areas that could be used with us it varies tremendously from state to state and region to region so like here we've got the missions and we have the Catholic element in old Hollywood then there was one believe me that's true you look at Blessed Sacrament where I got my first convenient Blessed Sacrament Hollywood Jesuit fathers IHF nuns oh you're talking about the CD more than I'm talking about industry the old rubber on the industry the industry that is locked in the old days not least because the even the Jewish world makers understood the attraction of Catholic symbolism but beyond that as I've said on other broadcasts it's important to remember that in this country our entertainment industry was brought to us although it's a Protestant country then there was the southern Brazil is a primarily white country the three marginal elements were the producers of its popular entertainment blacks Jews and Catholics the reasons for that but in all these areas if our if we were interested in evangelizing our country that's the kind of stuff would start out with but we're not so we don't but nevertheless but it is I think a harder fit than it is to the English okay not impossible and it's certainly easier than what the Japanese have to work with but you know everything is different it Canaanites well these you're harder because amongst the French Canadians we're an apostate people that are apostasy was a relatively short time ago in fact within my lifetime but the Anglo Canadians part of their ethos is that they're not French and being French element being Catholic but at the same time the Anglo Canadians do have a tradition of their own the so-called high Tory tradition that is very high Church Anglican and has certain connections to be explored so to to answer his question what do I think of radical orthodoxy if it is used as a means of evangelization and I believe it certainly can be then I'm all for you have it's simply an end in itself that's like any other end of themself fall short do you think these thinkers have a potential to clear the way for Catholic and Orthodox tradition or do you think they're too tainted by Vatican 2 theology well firstly because most including father Nicholas was a convert do not come from a cradle Catholic origin that's not a question that means anything Avantika to theology is not how do I put this it's just not there it's not I live with this another way when a person comes to see the church as the thing he's not attracted to it by Vatican 2 that's true he's attracted to it by what is unchanging by what better to succeed would call the hermeneutic tradition that's what attracts an outside of the church so it's not really a relevant question he's rock-and-roll youth masses don't attract no are they enough oh and so I mean it's not the attitude to theology is something you know that doesn't apply to lose they never have it they're coming from a completely different tradition entirely I mean it's you have a hard question that's a it's like what during what period did I fight in Vietnam and how do I feel is Vietnam veteran well I didn't I wasn't there you know I just finished rereading desire interception oh sorry well is this good to say this kind of question is it like how would you say mr. cool how would you say your combat experience in Vietnam has affected your life well I was never in Vietnam but I was in combat Vietnam so if I can't even answer it hasn't because that would imply that I was over there fighting yeah but just by combat experience of Vietnam never existed yeah so I really the question right so yeah he never was involved so there is no taint there's no tape no it just doesn't touch anywhere it doesn't touch me well hey when I was gonna say I reread desire deception ah we're a wonderful book and another plug you seem to be doing this comparison in this one area of Unitarian belief with that acute to see how could she be well because what I love Unitarian theology of course to the degree there is any because it was so what's intangible I mean whether you can't accuse the radical orthodoxy people being is attachable quite the contrary they're interested in making the faith real in everyday life in every element of life and government and society in music and culture everything with the faith nothing against the faith nothing outside the faith to paraphrase Mussolini about the state right and so you know it it is the opposite of that kind of remember what the with the theologians of Anakin tune but someone not all we're trying to do was to baptize the modern world basically as they saw this is based upon several misapprehensions what was that the modern world was a thing as opposed to a moment in time and baptizing a moment in time is very hard yeah it's it's but they having lived through the world wars ladies a gentleman inserted World War two a lot of the fathers of etiquette who believed that we had arrived in a new era and that that new era meant something it meant about as much as JFK's haircut because at that time tells very quickly all of the Givens of that era are gone the United States are no longer a self-defined Christian country the Soviet Union no longer exists we do not live in the world of 1963 but the theologians of that period the dominant party believed that we had entered a new age and that it would be permanent instead they came up with a theology for that lasted for a world it was for a world that lasted about a decade two decades and now when so many of its younger adherents about lived it themselves they're furious attempting to force reality to fit it it was a great theology and we got to make the world around as fit it now well no no no that's anyone [Music]

Channel: Tumblar House

Views: 6,766

Rating: 4.8809524 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Charles Coulombe, Off the Menu, Radical Orthodoxy Movement, Father Aiden Nichols

Id: 4eyyxlPbVtM

Length: 17min 7sec (1027 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 13 2017