I realize the blog has been silent for a few days. This is the fault of John Milbank. I’ve spend the last couple weeks rigorously editing his forthcoming volume with Cascade Books, The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology. Whatever disagreements I and anyone else might have with Milbank, the man is an incredible genius, having a grasp of western philosophy and theology, the likes of which is rarely seen in a theologian.

The forthcoming book promises to be a very good one, containing a lot of superb essays from Milbank that really get at the inner-workings of his theopolitical vision and his theology as a whole. Here is the contents of the book:

I Theology and English Culture

1    Coleridge: Divine Logos and Human Communication
2    Religion, Culture, and Anarchy: The Attack on the Arnoldian Vision
3    What is Living and What is Dead in Newman’s Grammar of Assent

II Theology and British Politics

4    Were the “Christian Socialists” Socialist?
5    The Body by Love Possessed: Christianity and Late Capitalism in Britain
6    On Baseless Suspicion: Christianity and the Crisis of Socialism

III Theology and Social Theory: Responses

7    Enclaves: or Where is the Church?
8    On Theological Transgression
9    The Invocation of Clio

IV Political Theology Today

10    Sovereignty, Empire, Capital, and Terror
11    Liberality versus Liberalism
12    Stale Expressions: The Management-Shaped Church

V Theology and Pluralism

13    The End of Dialogue
14    The Conflict of the Faculties: Theology and the Economy of the Sciences
15    Faith, Reason, and Imagination: The Study of Theology and Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century

VI Theological Agendas

16    Postmodern Critical Augustinianism: A Short Summa in Forty-Two Responses to Unasked Questions
17    The Transcendality of the Gift: A Summary in Answer to 12 Questions
18    The Future of Love: A Reading of Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est

Personally, I found the essays in the sections on Theology and Social Theory and “Theological Agendas” to be the most engaging and interesting. In particular, I think Milbank’s article, “Enclaves, or Where is the Church?” is one of his best pieces. In it we get an utterly rich reading of Paul’s ecclesiology in the Corinthian epistles. Milbank’s engagement with Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclial, Deus Caritas Est is also a superb piece. All in all, I think anyone interested in contemporary theology in general, and Milbank’s work in particular will find this book very helpful. I look forward to it going into production soon.