Oleg Davydov
Oleg Davydov

Via Premoderna: Metaphysical-Political Project of John Milbank

Oleg Davydov - Chair of Philosophy, School of Humanities, Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok, Russia). 328gr@rambler.ru

The article discusses the development of the ideas of John Milbank - contemporary theologian and philosopher, leader of the intellectual movement "Radical Orthodoxy". Comparison of the ideas presented in his early and later work provides an opportunity of reconstruction of Milbank's ontological conception and its relationship with his socio-political project. Radicalism of Milbank's methodological approach to the relation between "secular" and "religious" is based on deconstruction of ontological and gnoseological foundations of secular metaphysics and identification of its theological nature. Milbank advocates the possibility of bringing the theological discourse to the public sphere through a reinterpretation of the Christian intellectual and social practices. He explains essential connection between metaphysical philosophy and political philosophy as well as between epistemology as "representation" and the idea of "political representation". He discusses the project of Christian socialism, rooted in the realist Thomistic ontology and aimed at building a democratic society beyond secular political spectrum. This project is presented as going beyond current opposition of liberalism and conservatism.

Keywords: ontology, theology, univocity, analogy, secular, religion, Christian socialism, communitarianism.

The ongoing situation of postmodernity, however vague the meaning of the term, has its own characteristics, among which one of the most important is the re-evaluation of the value of rational universalism in modern philosophy and social theory. In the conditions of postmodernity, it is possible to recognize the traditions and phenomena associated with it.-

Davydov O. Via premoderna: John Milbank's Metaphysical and Political project // State, religion, and Church in Russia and abroad. 2015. N 3 (33). pp. 361-381.

Davydov, Oleg (2015) "Via premoderna: Metaphysical-Political Project of John Milbank", Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 33(3): 361 - 381.

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some of them were marginalized in the previous era, because they did not fit into the project of rational understanding of the world and the world order. For Christianity, in this situation, a double movement of critical thought becomes very fruitful, aimed, on the one hand, at identifying the reasons that led to the internal transformation of theology itself and to the loss of its role as an integrating discourse, and on the other, at implementing new theological strategies based on the understanding of this transformation in a broad socio-cultural context. the context. In this article, we will look at one of these attempts associated with the name of John Milbank, which, in our opinion, is not only very interesting, but also quite consistent in theory.

John Milbank (born 1952) is a British philosopher, theologian, cultural critic, poet, and professor at the University of Nottingham. He is one of the leaders of the Christian intellectual movement called radical orthodoxy1. The peculiarity of this movement lies in its inter-confessional nature, as well as in the fact that it focuses on revising the relationship between the secular and the religious. Therefore, "radical orthodoxy" fits into the ensemble of modern trends of scientific and religious thought that studies post-secular problems2.

It should also be noted that Milbank's main ideas show an interesting parallel with the direction of Russian religious thought known as the"neo-patristic synthesis". Imagine this-

1. See: Kyrlezhev A. John Milbank: the Mind beyond the secular / / Logos. 2008. N 4. pp. 28-32; Denisenko A. Mission of "Radical Orthodoxy" as a theological deconstruction of the concept of "secular" / / Theological reflections (Special issue "Church and Mission"). UESB Publ., 2012; Milbank, J. P. (in Russian). Materialism and transcendence / / Logos. 2011. No. 3 (82). pp. 206-245; Milbank J. "Christianity will be reborn only if it tries to rethink everything again in a Christian way..." / / State, religion, Church in Russia and abroad. 2013. N 3 (31). pp. 285-290; Milbank J. (2012) Secularity has totalitarian tendencies // Russian Journal (http://www.russ.ru/ Mirovayapovestka/Sekulyarnost-imeet-totalitarnye-naklonnosti). See also the bibliography and materials on the Bogoslov website.<url> [http://www.bogoslov.ru/ persons/1945607/index.html Shchipkov D. A. "Radical Orthodoxy": a critical analysis. Abstract of the dissertation of the Candidate of Philosophical Sciences : 09.00.13 / St. Petersburg: SPBU, 2004; Shakespeare, S. (2007) Radical Orthodoxy: A Critical Introduction. SPCK; Smith, J.K.A. (2004) Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-Secular Theology. Baker Academic.

2. The problems of the post-secular were discussed in detail in the thematic issue of the journal " State, Religion, Church "(2012, N 2).

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The authors of the last 3 turned to the experience of ancient and medieval Christian thought, which in general, taking into account significant differences, is consonant with the main intention of the participants of the "radical Orthodoxy". On the other hand, Milbank and his associates are also close to the sophiological direction, especially the social and ecclesiological ideas of the late period of Fr.Sergius Bulgakov's work regarding the impossibility of establishing a harmonious social order outside the Church, as well as skepticism about the secular social project as a whole. "Radical Orthodoxy" and Russian theological thought are united by the desire to develop speculative theology in a single complex with its historical, social, and political implications, bridging the fatal gap between theory and practice that took place in the secular era.4
The fruitfulness and originality of Milbank's critique of secular philosophy and social theory is primarily due to the fact that, unlike many contemporary Christian thinkers, he skillfully plays on the field of secular thinking and uses its own weapon against it, namely, the immanent criticism of secular thought. In addition, this critique explicates the prospects for the realization of certain aspects of the Western theological tradition, which are provided for it by the socio-cultural and philosophical situation of postmodernity.

The name of John Milbank is known to the Russian-speaking reader mainly in connection with his first major work " Theology and Social Theory: beyond the Secular Mind " 5, originally published in 1990. In this article, I would like to focus on an analysis of the transformations of Milbank's thought since the publication of Theology and Social Theory, including the publication in 2014 of the continuation of this work under the title "Theology and Social Theory".

3. In the person of O. G. Florovsky, V. Lossky, Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern), O. I. Meyendorff and other theologians.

4. См.: Encounter Between Eastern Orthodoxy and Radical Orthodoxy: Transfiguring the World Through the Word (2009). Eds. Adrian Pabst and Christoph Schneider. Ashgate.

5. Milbank, J. (1990) Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason. Oxford; Cambridge: Blackwell. Russian translations of two chapters of this work have been published. See: J. Milbank Political theology and the New Science of Politics // Logo. 2008. N 4. P. 33-54; Milbank J. Surveillance of the Sublime: A Critique of the Sociology of Religion.Gosudarstvo, religiya, tserkva v Rossii I za rubezhom [State, Religion, Church in Russia and Abroad]. 2013. N 3 (31). pp. 210-284.

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under the title "Beyond the Secular Order: the Representation of Being and the representation of the people" 6.

Analyzing the first of these two books by Milbank, it should be noted that his critique of secular modernity is complex and is conducted from several directions. First, from the epistemological point of view, he develops a critique of scientism and materialism, while effectively using the methodology of post-structuralism and deconstruction. Second, Milbank criticizes a liberal social order based on a secular interpretation of religion and a rejection of the metaphysical foundations of social existence. Third, from Milbank's point of view, the unsatisfactory state of public space in general, as well as the decline of humanities in the academy, in particular, are qualified by him as a consequence of the displacement of theology from the public and academic spheres.

These areas of criticism are united by the question of the role and place of theology in the situation when it has ceased to be the only legitimate discourse that determines the legitimacy of other discourses. We believe that all the variety of existing answers to this question can be reduced to three paradigmatic variants.

The classical enlightenment response is to completely eliminate theology from the public space as a mythological narrative that was overcome in the course of the emancipation of reason. In this perspective, theology is being replaced by secular metaphysics, which in turn is being replaced by positivism and scientism. The second variant of the answer is the transformation of theology and its inclusion in philosophy as the overcome stage of the latter's self-development. This is Hegel's answer, although the Hegelian disposition, despite its desire for universalism, just like the first version of the answer, has specific historical prerequisites and explicit Gnostic connotations.7 The third answer is to recognize theology as a scientific discipline and include it as a humanitarian science in the academic and public space.

6. Milbank, J. (2014) Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People. Wiley-Blackwell. It should be noted that in the near future it is planned to publish the final work of this series by Milbank entitled "On Divine Governance".

7. O'Regan, C. (2014) Anatomy of Misremembering: Von Balthasar's Response to Philosophical Modernity. Volume 1: Hegel. The Crossroad Publishing Company.

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Milbank rejects all three of these answers because he believes that theology should once again become a meta-discourse that legitimizes all human knowledge and action. It is obvious that the current state of affairs - both in society as a whole and in the academic sphere - does not meet this requirement. Therefore, according to Milbank, it is necessary to transform both in accordance with the concept of theology as a meta-discourse. According to the Milbank tradition of medieval theology, at least until the late-stage intrusion of Aristotelian metaphysics, there was no explicit division between theology and philosophy to avoid a relapse into paganism. The desire to implement such a synthesis is the driving force of "Radical Orthodoxy" as an intellectual project.

The autonomous modern mind, which thinks itself free from theological problems, is considered by Milbank in genealogical optics, which allows us to identify its essential features and internal contradictions. Modern philosophy in all its various directions is qualified by him as the result of deliberate distortion of premodern Christian theology in a Gnostic way. Hegel and Nietzsche do not appear as opposite figures on the philosophical spectrum, as they are usually portrayed; on the contrary, the nihilism of the latter is interpreted as a necessary consequence of the dialectic of the former. The difference between these ontologies lies in the understanding of the metaphysical relationship between the One and the Many and, from an orthodox theological point of view, ontological violence and the impossibility of a peaceful interpretation of being. From Milbank's point of view, unlike Christian narratives, all other types of narratives, especially Nietzschean-postmodern nihilism, are "ontologies of violence"8, that is, they affirm the impossibility of peaceful coexistence of differences in the socio-political space and lead to violence over them. Milbank deconstructs the Nietzschean narrative, in which force and violence are contrasted with Christianity as a "peaceful" religion of weakness and the weak, pointing out that the Christian narrative of peaceful and free creation removes both the pagan myth of the inevitability of violence and the pathos of heroic valor associated with the concepts of strength and success. Milbank on-

8. Milbank, J. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason, p. 279.

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He insists that "there is a mode of action in the world of violence that presupposes the ontological priority of nonviolence." 9
A peaceful understanding of being presupposes interpreting the ontological differences that exist between created beings not as derivatives of unavoidable violence and struggle, but as an abundant divine gift. Developing Augustine's ontology, Milbank contrasts the pagan narrative of violence with the Christian narrative of peace, which is intended to be embodied in a concrete historical church community, that is, a narrative that does not allow abstract speculation about peaceful existence outside of its practical implementation. Milbank contrasts the idea of being as a struggle of differences with the idea of peaceful coexistence of differences inherent in creation as a free gift of the Triune Creator. The revelation of the peaceful dispensation of existence is available to Christians only in a community that, through the Eucharist, which unites all creation, is drawn into the infinite reciprocity and peace of the Father's intra - troic gift to the Son, who, having given himself, becomes a reciprocal gift to the Father. Creation, as a free gift from God, is of a good nature, and the differences that manifest in it point to the infinite life of the triune Creator. Milbank's concept is thus an alternative to postmodern nihilism and the myth of the inevitability of violence, and is developed as "embodying a' peaceful ontology 'that understands differences as analogically related rather than univocally contradictory." 10 Milbank develops a Thomist understanding of analogy as a real mediation between identity and difference; the univocality characteristic of scoticism and its successor forms of modern philosophy is the negation of such mediation. For example, from the point of view of analogy, the finite good (truth, beauty, etc.) has similarities with the Divine Good (Truth, Beauty, etc.), but still they are infinitely different in quality. Univocality, on the other hand, is a mode of discourse about being attributed to both the infinite (Divine) and finite (created) in the same sense. Thus, the Divine Good and the finite good become identical in their essence and differ only quantitatively 11.

9. Milbank, J. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason, p. 411.

10. Ibid., p. 279.

11. For more information, see below.

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Considering secular thought from the standpoint of Christian theology in the Thomist tradition, Milbank interprets modern social theory as an immanentist discourse characterized by a quasi-theological concept of society.12 Positivism is not a neutral and objective cognition of reality, but an ideologically biased worldview. Milbank offers a view of modern history that is the opposite of Comte's three stages of human development, insisting on the need to move from the failed positivism of building a good society through metaphysics to theological thinking. In his view, the pursuit of "things themselves," which characterizes both positivism and phenomenology, leads not to the actual achievement of what is desired, but to the metaphysical suppression of concrete universality and to the loss of a true vision of things, which, according to Milbank, is possible only in a theological perspective.

In turn, postmodern nihilism, according to Milbank, only seems to overcome modernist rationalism. In reality, this transition shows only a change in the mode of narrative in the constant striving for the realization of the irrational will to violence and power (Nietzsche). The postmodern ontology of difference is no less immanentist and as incompatible with Christian theology as the rational metaphysics of modernity. Therefore, Milbank's strategy is not built in line with the classical apologetics of Christianity and not just through rejecting the postmodern ontology of difference and violence-for the sake of returning to classical metaphysical realism. On the contrary, Milbank explicates the internal contradictions of postmodern ontology, offering a positive alternative in the form of a new articulation of a specifically Christian experience of being: "As it becomes clear that there is no need to see the inevitable conflict in reality... gradually, another possibility opens up - to understand reality itself as a peaceful existence. " 13
From Milbank's point of view, modern metaphysics, separated from theology, is not an independent phenomenon, but the result of an internal deformation of the theological tradition itself, which took place in the late Middle Ages. "Secular" is not a phenomenon that has emerged independently of the theological tradition,

12. Milbank, J. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason, p. 29.

13. Ibid., p. 289.

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it is a dysfunction of Western theology itself, and this disease can only be cured by the latter's own efforts. Secularism has its roots in a particular form of theology, namely in the Scythian and nominalist opposition to Christian Platonism. Paradoxically, the Franciscan scholasticist Duns Scotus ' effort to establish divine transcendence and its priority over created existence by breaking all connection between the two, as well as to distinguish between the supernatural and natural goals of man, led to the opposite result. The "pious" desire to protect the freedom of God from metaphysical necessity gave rise to the understanding of God as an irrational, inaccessible to finite reason, infinite power over creation. This led to a shift of attention, as well as the direction of human activity, from the transcendent to the immanent and to secularization, accompanied by a gradual oblivion of the transcendent. This distortion is connected with the famous theological-philosophical school discussion between realists and nominalists and with the victory of the latter in it. However, to understand the significance of this shift, it should be noted that the origins of mutual autonomy of the secular and sacred are found not only in the speculative-theological, but also in the socio-political sphere of the late Middle Ages. The corresponding processes are associated with the late medieval transformation of the institutions of the Roman Church and with the rise of canon law, while at the same time reducing the importance of dogmatic theology. As a result of the nominalist revolution, which drew a hard line between theology and philosophy, there was a significant formalization of church thinking and practice: "The theology of the sacraments of the late Middle Ages could no longer remain dependent on philosophy in terms of justification, therefore, it turned to canon law. The words of the canonists were still the words of the great scholastics, but now they had a legal rather than theological meaning. " 14 Legalism, that is, following the letter of the teaching while losing its spirit, and magism, as an irrational trend in the field of sacramentology, became constant companions of Christian thinking for a long period, preventing the continuation of the living tradition of God-

14. Modern Catholic theology. Anthology / Ed. Heiza M., Djirona L. M.: BBI, 2007, p. 555.

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author's creativity. At the same time, it was the Roman Church, seeking to increase its political influence, that first embarked on the path of secularization, that is, artificially establishing the boundary between the secular and the sacred. This fact is of great importance for understanding the model that Milbank offers as an alternative to secular modernity.15
In the first chapter of the second of these works, 16 Milbank focuses on the explication of the metaphysical origins of secular philosophy, since, in his opinion, it is precisely this philosophy that is the foundation of the modern social and political order. Developing a historicist critique of secular metaphysics, the foundations of which seem self-evident, he draws attention to their implicit theological roots. Thus, speaking about the transformations in the theological tradition that contributed to the emergence of secular metaphysics, Milbank identifies four main elements.

First, in the late Medieval theology, there was a shift in the understanding of being - from equivocal to univocal (that is, from analogical to unambiguous), which, in fact, determined all other changes. To describe the ontological duality, that is, the infinite difference between the Creator and his creation, but taking into account the fact that God participates in creation by His grace, special expressive means are needed. The language of analogy can show how creation is related to God, without confusing Divine being with created being, and at the same time avoiding deistic autonomization of creation.17
The metaphysics of Duns Scotus, which was formed under the influence of Latin averroism with its theory of the duality of truth, was a turning point in changing the understanding of being. For Cattle, being is the main object of the intellect, which knows concrete beings only because they are modes of being. Skot for the first time conceptually identified the existence of God and the existence of creation, while at the same time rejecting the possibility of knowing God through creatures by the principle of similarity. Arguing with the analogical language of St. Thomas Aquinas and defending the univocality of being, Scot writes: "God and creatures are not fundamentally different.

15. Milbank, J. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason, p. 122.

16. Milbank, J. (2014) Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People. Wiley-Blackwell.

17. Ibid., p. 50.

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they are different in terms of concepts, but they are fundamentally different in reality, because they are not similar in anything real. " 18 Suarez later followed the same path of recognizing being univocal, paving the way for the secular metaphysics of modernity with its rigid separation of philosophy and theology, reason and faith.

Milbank considers the second theological prerequisite for the emergence of secular metaphysics to be the epistemological shift from knowledge as identity to knowledge as a reflection of reality, that is, as representation.19 Thus, the transition to Cartesian dualism and to the metaphysics of the subject was prepared. Aquinas ' representation of God in the space of created existence is analogous to God's own existence, in which the creature participates by grace. The epistemology of identity presupposes an understanding of the identity of the being of a thing and its "representation" by God, and, accordingly, its cognition by the finite spirit occurs through an analogy with the infinite divine being. In the Thomist tradition that Milbank adheres to, finite human knowledge is related to the infinite Divine Logos-Christ, through whom both the knower and the known being are brought into being. In this paradigm, the image of a thing that exists in the mind of the knower is identical to the really (objectively) existing form of the thing being known.20 For Occam and Scotus, on the other hand, the infinite and the finite are formally distinct: God brings created beings into being by his will, but this does not mean that he allows them to be partakers of his being by grace. In the Scythian perspective, human knowledge is subjective and does not affect the things themselves in their being, being their copying or reflection in a subjective representation. Thus, the human mind ceases to be an active participant in the process of cognition, dynamically unfolding in an analogical perspective; now it passively perceives the influence of the divine will, carried out from the outside - through the senses. As a consequence, the object of knowledge is not real things, but subjective representations, which paves the way for the emergence of the New European metaphysics of subjectivity.

18. John Duns Skot. Izbrannoe [Selected works], Moscow: Franciscan Publishing House, 2001, p. 425.

19. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 57.

20. Ibid. p. 31

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The third point of theological transformation, according to Milbank, was the" inversion " of the metaphysical relationship between actuality and possibility21. Adapting Aristotelian language to the needs of theology, Aquinas asserts that God is actus purus (pure actuality), and creation is potential and only partially actual - by virtue of its gracious participation in the divine being. Nominalist possibilism22, which is aimed at asserting omnipotence as the main and even the only divine attribute (that is, the negative freedom of God from the rationalistic limitations of scholastic metaphysics), comes into direct confrontation with the understanding of God as actus purus. For Aquinas, infinite actuality precedes all created possibility; for Cattle, on the contrary, possibilities can be actualized. In turn, the human mind, separated from desire and will, is transformed from a divine-like created logos into a system of a priori possibilities. The will becomes an internal regulator of the mind in choosing the direction of actualization of its abilities. In other words, the will is simply a possibility of choice, and not an actual movement in the direction ofthe telos of created beings. Possibilism, since it eliminates the attractiveness of desire, can be described as a" cold " attitude to reality. He is unable to answer the question " why Being?" and it only answers the question " how is being arranged, infinite as well as finite?"23. The consequences of this theological shift were disastrous for the scholastic tradition, because the voluntaristic understanding of God and created existence, as well as their relationship, which was formed as a result of this shift, caused the formation of secular knowledge, which subsequently replaced theology from the leading positions. The Enlightenment revolt against the authoritarian and voluntaristic God of nominalists led to the autonomization of philosophy and the progressive secularization of society.

The fourth fundamental philosophical and theological turn was the transition from causality as a divine influence-

21. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 66.

22. From Lat. possibllis - possible.

23. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 109.

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approaches to causality as a competition of causes 24. As a result of the displacement of the fundamental principle of the analogy of being for Thomism and Christian Platonism, the problem of the relationship between created freedom and divine omnipotence arose. Created existence has come to be understood in terms of autonomy and independence from the divine. The concept of causality as an influence was peculiar to medieval theology, being borrowed from Neoplatonic ontology, in which being was represented as a hierarchical whole and united by a single principle. The competition of causes is fixed in the univocal Scythian interpretation of being, in which there is a conflict between divine omnipotence and created freedom. Divine authority ceases to be understood in an analogical sense-as being beyond created freedom and necessity, that is, being the source of both. Now the transcendent influence of God on creation begins to be understood as having an ontological nature, identical to the inner-world forces and differing only quantitatively. If being is not analogous, but univocal, then there is competition between divine and created causality in the same ontological space. In the previous model of causality as influence, there was a guarantee of action for a lesser cause, but in the univocal de-hierarchical order, this guarantee is lost and a situation of competition of causes arises. Causality becomes one-sided, the causes replace each other without any hierarchical subordination and synergy.

Reacting to these fundamental distortions of the Thomist theological tradition, Milbank seeks to actualize the analogical interpretation of being, pointing out that the universal interpretation is not a rationally valid statement, but an existential choice, that is, the volitional acceptance of an axiomatic premise based on the belief that a harmonious mediation between identity and difference is impossible: "Philosophically speaking, the universal reading is only one possible reading of the ontological distinction between Being and being. It is more an existential orientation than a persuasive one.-

24. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 72.

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25. By polemicizing with the Thomists, Skot eliminates from the ontological order simple transcendentals that go beyond the Aristotelian categories, that is, the most general characteristics of existence that are related to each other: such as truth, goodness, and beauty. As a result, only paired dividing attributes of being remain, which are unambiguously understood and identical to being itself: possibility-actuality, finiteness-infinity, etc.This is how the transcendental attributes of being in Cattle become the main subject of rational metaphysics, that is, philosophy, and not theology, as in St. Thomas.

The problem of the relationship between the actual and the potential is a cornerstone for theology and metaphysics. According to Milbank, who stands on the position of Thomism, the restoration of the metaphysical primacy of relevance over potentiality is the most important condition for an adequate understanding of Christian ontology, distorted by bestiality. According to the analogical perspective, God as infinite actuality communicates absolute completeness to those qualities of creation that can be known. Only in an analogical perspective can we adequately understand the phenomena of the world, for being is always revealed in the difference of beings, seen not in itself, but in the light of non-existent being, or the infinite distance between Creator and creation. However, even the most object-oriented secular immanentist phenomenology, with all its striving for things themselves, cannot achieve them, since the knowing subject as a finite being is virtually inaccessible to absolute experience of reality and infinite analysis. In addition, from an epistemological perspective, the Cartesian-Kantian distinction between the transcendental faculties of reason, will, and imagination blocks the creative ability of the integral mind as it is understood in the Aristotelian-Thomist tradition. Criticizing the notion of the modern subject as an active instance of cognition that cognizes a passive object, Milbank notes: "The' turn to the subject', since it presupposes the acceptance of God's absolute authority and his fundamental responsibility to determine all secondary causes, is in fact correlated with complete freedom-

25. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 50.

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26. As a result of this "dissection", the human mind is transformed from an active-creative instance of cognition into a passive reflection of external influences. The cognitive passivity of the modern subject that manifests itself in the process of cognition is associated with the "competitive" model of causality, according to which only the voluntaristic God is an active instance.

The next chapter of Milbank's second book is devoted to a critique of modern political ontology, which was formed on the basis of metaphysics, which was generated by Scythian theology. The projection of secular metaphysics on sociality legitimizes the idea of society as a sum of individuals with negative freedom, but devoid of any teleology. Milbank criticizes anthropological possibilism, noting that it is contradictory in its foundations, because possibility does not exist in itself, but only as a negativity of relevance, that is, possibility cannot precede relevance, but, on the contrary, depends on it. We could not know anything about the infinite variety of unrealized possibilities if we did not already assume an actuality that exists before any possibility.

Milbank's political ontology is often characterized as conservative, since he sees a real alternative to the modern secular order in the idea of a communitarian-hierarchical structure peculiar to Catholic social teaching, in which the Eucharistic communities are supplemented by the hierarchical structure of the Church, which creates a differentiated unity. Milbank notes: "According to the theological point of view, the Church is not an 'additional' religious organization to which some people belong. On the contrary, it is the basic condition for the existence of human society and humanity as such"27. Milbank rejects accusations of conservatism, pointing out that the progressive/conservative opposition itself is modern, and therefore it is wrong to extrapolate it

26. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 82.

27. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 240.

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on the concept that is being built on the other side of the specified modern opposition.

The ontology of realism advocated by Milbank presupposes its embodiment in a concrete social structure, namely, in Christian socialism, which "combines a commitment to democracy with an educational mission to introduce people to the truth"28. However, Milbank's understanding of socialism differs from its classical version, which is embedded in the modern political spectrum: "We demand today a new' policy of integral trans-organicity 'that combines Christian socialism with what is truly valuable in the 'conservative' critique of modernity. " 29 At the same time, it should be noted that despite the desire for a genuine Christian socialism that connects metaphysics and practice, the temptation of conservative or traditionalist adaptation to the existing secular order is relentlessly pursuing Christianity. Speaking of a "third way" that lies on the other side of the existing political spectrum, Milbank points out that at least since the French Revolution, "the right and left factions have conspired to understand pre-modernity as 'conservatism'. But we must reject this as an anachronism with all critical rigor. The meaning of premodernity for us today is not "conservative" or "traditional"; rather, it confronts us as a mystery that challenges all our modern biases. " 30
In"Postmodern Critical Augustinism: A Summary of 42 Answers to Unanswered Questions, "31 which is a summary of Milbank's thoughts after the publication of his book Theology and Social Theory, the author notes that theology in the postmodern era is possible only in the form of understanding and interpreting Christian practices. From his point of view, the uniqueness of Christian forms of social existence lies in the fact that,

28. Uzlaner D. Interview with J. R. R. Tolkien Milbank. "Secularity has totalitarian tendencies" / / Russian Journal [http://www.russ.ru/Mirovayapovestka/Sekulyarnost-imeet-totalitarnye-naklonnosti, accessed 15.06.2015].

29. Milbank, J. Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People, p. 268.

30. Ibid., p. 161.

31. Milbank, J. (1997) "Postmodern Critical Augustinianism: A Short Summa in Forty-two Responses to Unasked Question", in The Postmodern God: A Theological Reader (ed. Graham Ward). Oxford: Blackwell.

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that they - by their very nature determined by the practice of Eucharistic communion-unfold on the other side of the oppositions of conservatism and liberalism, traditionalism and progressivism. The Liturgy, as a concrete event that constitutes the Christian community, shows the unity of the practical realization of theological truth and the unceasing reflection of church life: "In fact, theology has no better occupation than to contemplate the uniqueness of the Christian norms of community. After all, all Christian practice, like all practice, has a completely "external" character, consists entirely of signs and actions addressed to "persons" " 32.

According to Milbank, as already noted, modern fideist and anti-metaphysical post-Scythian Christianity is embedded in the secular order and therefore supports it. However, the existential need of man and the ethical needs of society require the articulation of metaphysical meanings. The so-called "religious renaissance" that has been taking place in recent decades, unfortunately, cannot satisfy the need for metaphysics, because it is not so much orthodox Christianity in its entirety that is being revived, but positive religion in its modern fideistic form, which, as a rule, leads to fundamentalism.33
The practical goal of actualizing the role of theology as a meta-discourse is to restore the" Christian world " (Christendom), because only in it can theology perform an integrating function for all currently disparate spheres of human activity. Milbank believes that " Christianity and the Christian world cannot be separated, because the incarnational perspective requires that truth be mediated both culturally and politically."34 In this view, the Christian response to the challenge of the secular world is to conceptualize Christian socialism as a harmonious and peaceful social order based on theological foundations. The essence of this procedure is the new version of the pre-moderated co-

32. Milbank, J. (1997) "Postmodern Critical Augustinianism: A Short Summa in Forty-two Responses to Unasked Question", in The Postmodern God: A Theological Reader (ed. Graham Ward), p. 268.

33. См: Milbank, J. (1990) Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason.

34. Milbank J. "Christianity will be reborn only if it tries to rethink everything again in a Christian way..." / / State, religion, Church in Russia and abroad. 2013. N 3 (31). pp. 288-289.

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a social ontology in which the wisdom of the majority (or All) complements the aristocracy of the virtues of Some and is supplemented by the unifying principle of One. And all this three-part but integral organicity is guided by the transcendent triune God in his infinite Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Milbank's position is that the nominalist revolution in theology, which took place in the late Middle Ages, led to a loss of the dynamic balance of faith and reason and to deformations in all spheres of life, and the modern autonomization of ethics and politics, religious and secular, resulted in the decline of each of these spheres. The essential identity of modern political alternatives is indicated by the fact that excessive attention to the defense of individual rights and freedoms generates, as a result of the elimination of horizontal social ties, autonomous bureaucratic hierarchies that suppress personal and social freedom no less than totalitarian statism. At the same time, medieval social ontology, rooted in theology, provides the basis for the harmonization of individual and public interests: "Since a group exists only for the benefit of its members, the good of the group will not differ from the good of the individuals who make up the group." 35 Thus, according to Milbank, the real alternative to the existing secular political order lies on the other side of the secular political spectrum - in Christian socialism. Milbank believes that "modern Christianity" in the form of an institutionalized religion, that is, a reproduction of the modern dichotomy of the secular and the sacred, supports the secular order instead of acting as an alternative to it.

Milbank's political project, which stems from his ontological concept, is a Christian communitarianism, which is opposed to the existing forms of reduction of social existence from both market liberalism and state centralism. The implementation of this program involves reaching agreement on the common good, as well as the transformation of individualistic morality, which led to universal nihilism, into a teleological ethics supported and promoted by the hri-

35. Wulf de M. Srednevekovaya filosofiya i tsivilizatsiya [Medieval Philosophy and Civilization]. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf Publ., 2014, p. 189.

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styan communities. Milbank notes: "If we approach the meaning of the concept of' God ' only through the community, then we should talk about God not only in words, but also in images and body movements. With all this, we say: "God" " 36. To a certain extent, this program is in tune with the programs of philosophical communitarianism that emerged in the course of polemics with liberal political philosophy. However, there are also differences between Christian socialism and communitarianism. In our opinion, the main difference is that Milbank relies more on metaphysics and theology, exposing the existing socio-political conservatism to critical analysis, while communitarianism emphasizes the moral, ethical and emotional dimension of social existence, tending to conservatism.

Milbank's concept of political organization is important for understanding the idea of a proper socio-political order that corresponds to Christian metaphysics. Speaking about the Christian vision of a proper political order, Milbank notes: "One can look at this from the point of view that a typical pre-modern political system acts as a 'mixed device' consisting of One, Several, and Many, the ratio of which varies depending on the circumstances. "37 The main problem of modern politics, according to Milbank, is that it, being based on a univocal ontology, rejects the idea of mediation between One and Many, as well as between identity and difference. This role of mediation in pre-modern society is played by the aristocracy, but Milbank adds here the "extended Few", who are embodied by the Church as an egalitarian matrix that democratized and made available to all the virtues of a narrow circle of the former aristocracy. Every Christian, that is, a person who actively participates in the life of the Church, is an aristocrat of the spirit, who has equality with others before God, regardless of his position in the social hierarchy.

According to Milbank, the Church is a community that is most egalitarian and at the same time implements aristocracy.-

36. Milbank, J. Postmodern Critical Augustinianism: A Short Summa in Forty-two Responses to Unasked Question, p. 270.

37. Ibid., p. 21.

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It is the epitome of Christian socialism, which is metaphysically oriented. A negative consequence of the elimination of the role of intermediary, which was previously performed by the aristocracy and the Church, in secular modernity is the polarization of the political spectrum into the "right" as supporters of One (centralization) and the "left" as supporters of Many (liberals). As already noted, Christian socialism, developed by Milbank, is positioned on the other side of the existing political spectrum and aims to revive the significance of the role of the Many in the most radical way, that is, having the pre-modern order as a model.

In modern Western philosophical theology, there are figures who develop Milbank-like concepts. Thus, the American theologian S. Hauerwas expresses similar ideas about the position of Christianity in the secular world, noting that for Christianity, the modern political spectrum with its permanent confrontation of left and right shows only two sides of the existing secular order.38 Both liberalism and its political opponent, conservatism, being products of secular modernity, support each other, while simultaneously pursuing the goal of privatizing religious sentiment and establishing a secular and quasi - religious morality of self-control. The apologetic style that has prevailed in theology in recent centuries is based on the assumption that one can remain Christian while simultaneously participating in worldly structures - but thereby maintaining them. However, the radicality of Christianity, as Milbank believes, lies in the fact that it resists any political and cultural appropriation and, on the contrary, becomes the basis of social order.

In general, the concept of Milbank - as befits such a large - scale project in terms of the tasks set-is marked by ambivalence and even inconsistency. On the one hand, as an intrusion into the English-speaking world of the analytical philosophy of continental metaphysics, which recognizes the high importance of classical questions of being, being, relevance and possibility for philosophical speculation, it fits into the rhythm of the dialectical development of Western philosophy. With another

38. См: Hauerwas, S. (2014) Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony. N.Y.: Abingdon Press.

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On the other hand, Milbank's main goal is to revive the pre-modern Christian matrix of thought and social practice, which can become a driving impulse for post-Christian civilization even after the almost complete elimination of this matrix from all spheres of life.

Summing up, it is necessary to pay attention to the flexibility and plasticity of Milbank's discourse. In accordance with his own understanding of the Christian narrative, theology is a dynamically developing and fundamentally incomplete project. This discourse is one of the best examples of the unity of form and content. At the same time, it is an example of philosophical and theological creativity in the postmodern era. The study of this discourse is very fruitful for those who are looking for new ways to express and actualize theological truths in a critical dialogue with both tradition and modernity.

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