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Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason » (22nd Edition)

Book cover image of Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason by John Milbank

Authors: John Milbank
ISBN-13: 9781405136846, ISBN-10: 1405136847
Format: Paperback
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Limited
Date Published: February 2006
Edition: 22nd Edition

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Author Biography: John Milbank

John Milbank is Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham and one of the most influential contemporary theologians. He is also the author of The Word Made Strange: Theology, Language, Culture (Blackwell, 1996).

Book Synopsis

In modern times, the social sciences have sought to explain religion from a neutral, secular vantage-point. In response, theology has tried to legitimate itself by building upon social scientific conclusions. In this acclaimed book, John Milbank suggests that both enterprises are compromised by the theological and anti-theological assumptions built into the social sciences themselves.

This new edition of Theology and Social Theory brings John Milbank’s classic work fully into line with his most recent views and is laid out in an easier-to-read format. It features a substantial new preface in which Milbank answers his critics by defending and further elaborating his metahistorical vision.

Provocative and well-argued, this updated classic from one of the world’s leading theologians offers a comprehensive treatment of the relation between theology and social theory, all the way from Plato to Deleuze.

Table of Contents

1Political theology and the new science of politics9
2Political economy as theodicy and agonistics26
3Sociology I : from Malebranche to Durkheim51
4Sociology II : from Kant to Weber75
5Policing the sublime : a critique of the sociology of religion101
6For and against Hegel147
7For and against Marx177
8Founding the supernatural : political and liberation theology in the context of modern Catholic thought206
9Science, power and reality259
10Ontological violence or the postmodern problematic278
11Difference of virtue, virtue of difference327
12The other city : theology as a social science382

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