Introduction / Part One: Politics / 1. The Metacrisis of Liberalism / 2. The Post-liberal Alternative / Part Two: Economy / 3. The Metacrisis of Capitalism / 4. The Civil Economy Alternative / Part Three: Polity / 5. The Metacrisis of Democracy / 6. The Mixed Constitution Alternative / Part Four: Culture / 7. The Metacrisis of Culture / 8. Culture as Formation / Part Five: World / 9. The Metacrisis of the Nations / 10. Commonwealth, Culture and Covenant / Conclusion / Index
John Milbank is Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the
University of Nottingham and Director of the Centre of Theology and
Philosophy.
Adrian Pabst is Reader in Politics at the University of Kent and
Visiting Professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille.
Most critiques of liberalism in the past 200 years—from Marxism,
feminism, and poststructuralism—come from the political left. In
The Politics of Virtue, Milbank (Nottingham) and Pabst (Kent)
challenge liberalism from the right, advocating for a “conservative
socialism." Influenced by postmodernism, the authors argue that
liberalism destroys itself by abstracting from the human good and
treating each individual impersonally, thereby allowing ever more
authoritarian tendencies into liberal politics in order to maintain
control over a populace whose desires are unfettered by traditional
social order. In place of liberalism’s primacy of individual
rights, the authors defend the primacy of associations of all
kinds—religions, regions, localities, unions, voluntary
organizations—that arouse citizens’ sense of civic duty and
responsibility, and check the centralizing tendency of liberal
governments. The book has five synoptic parts—politics, economy,
polity, culture, and world—and matches its ambitious scope with the
difficult project to bring abstract theoretical discussion down to
policy specifics. What emerges is an exciting, enthralling
alternative, though the authors remain unclear about which
liberalism they take aim at—there are now many liberalisms in
theory and practice. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division
undergraduates through faculty.
*CHOICE*
This book is at once profoundly disturbing yet also compelling, and
full of exciting ideas about how to moralise the market and reclaim
democracy. It stands as a signature contribution in the emerging
debates around post-liberalism and provides real hope as we
apparently slide into a post-truth world
*Prospect*
This book could perhaps be called prophetic.... Milbank and Pabst
extensively argue these formidable claims, with passion, flair, and
flourish and across the fields of politics, economics,
constitutional polity, culture, and international relations....
This is a profound and often brilliant cry to recognize the
procedural follies and criminalized economics that have converged
to undermine the social and cultural relatedness and embeddedness
that constitute the true goods of human existence.
*The Christian Century*
The Politics of Virtue is clearly an intellectual tour de force. It
deals with all the major problems, crises, and metacrises of our
time—and does so with intelligence and moral (not moralizing)
passion. There surely is an urgent need for both qualities in our
contemporary world, ravaged as it is by massive corruption,
exploitation, ecological devastation, and the stark danger of
nuclear holocaust. To deal with its multiple topics, the book
marshals an enviable breadth of expertise, cutting across the usual
barriers between politics, economics, psychology, anthropology,
philosophy, and theology. One can only wish that academic
border-crossing of this kind would become a more widespread habit.
Needless to say, in my above account, I could only touch on some
highlights of the book. Actually, the text is chockfull of valuable
insights—sometimes provocative insights—on numerous topics…. [O]ne
can only wish the book the largest possible readership.
*The Review of Politics*
Amidst the rising chorus of voices calling for the renewal of
grassroots democracy, Milbank and Pabst sound a distinctive “blue”
note. The languages of individual virtue and public honor,
they urge, must be redeployed to meet human needs for belonging and
embeddedness while revitalizing citizen participation in
government. It is possible, they argue, to draw on the very
energies that feed attacks on big government and fuel populism to
cultivate instead a politics of hope that joins patriotism with
international solidarity. Given the political impasses we face
today, their astute proposal merits a wide hearing.
*Jennifer A. Herdt, Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics,
Yale Divinity School*
This is a vital contribution within an emerging literature and
emboldened public conversation around what constitutes the common
good. Drawing on ancient traditions it is full of
philosophical insight and concrete, practical political
suggestion. It challenges the most basic assumptions of
liberalism; it is quietly devastating.
*Jon Cruddas, MP*
To the dilemmas of late modernity, Milbank and Pabst propose a
vision of social, political, and economic order that is at once
classical and Christian, but neither reactionary nor emptily
nostalgic; a politics of virtue, and of a cultural commitment to
the paedagogy of the good, theirs is a brilliant and original
imagining of a genuine Christian socialism sustained not by the
technocratic bureaucracy of the modern state, but by the deepest
wellsprings of human spiritual community.
*David Bentley Hart, Visiting Professor, Providence College*
With a characteristic mix of bravura argumentation and telling
detail, Milbank and Pabst mount a powerful critique of what they
call the 'metacrisis' of liberalism across fiive areas, politics,
economics, democracy, culture and international relations, and in
each case offer equally powerful alternatives, rooted in much older
traditions. Superbly written, bracingly argued and with a reach and
range that is genuinely impressive, this book is bound to have a
powerful impact in many different academic fields and indeed in the
world beyond the academy as well.
*Nicholas Rengger, Professor of Political Theory and International
Relations, University of St Andrews*
Perhaps what is most shocking – and most thrilling – about this
book is that the authors fully expect their proposals
to be taken seriously! The Politics of Virtue is a
masterpiece which, with a single stroke, both rebukes the cowardice
and effete impracticality of so many armchair political
theologians, and shows up the resigned nihilism of those political
theorists who believe that liberalism is the only game in town.
*Scott Stephens, Religion & Ethics editor, Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, and Co-host of The Minefield, on ABC Radio
National*
A brilliant analysis of the triumph of economic and social
liberalism and the miseries these have engendered, especially to
the poorest of us. And the first signs of a clear path out of this
mess, towards a politics rooted in tradition, history and
social obligation. The best political book of the last five
years.
*Rod Liddle, journalist and writer*
The Politics of Virtue is going to be a vital contribution to that
issue [what kind of thing humanity might and should be], as well as
a crucial intervention in current political debate. It will
infuriate as many as it will delight; but it is a monumental and
un-ignorable diagnosis of a critical moment in our culture.
*Rowan Williams, New Statesman*
I am in deep sympathy with Milbank's and Pabst's understanding and
critique of liberalism and I have sympathy with some of their
proposed alternatives [...] I am particularly drawn to their
understanding of the ethics of virtue which they argue depends on
the presumption that our lives have a purpose and meaning that is
not just our arbitrary will.
*Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity
and Law, Duke University, on the ABC Religion & Ethics website*
The Politics of Virtue is clearly an intellectual tour de
force. It deals with all the major problems, crises and
metacrises of our time—and does so with intelligence and moral (not
moralizing) passion. There surely is an urgent need for both
qualities in our contemporary world [...]. To deal with its
multiple topics, the book marshals an enviable breadth of
expertise, cutting across the usual barriers between politics,
economics, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology.
[...] the text is chuck-full of valuable insights—sometimes
provocative insights—on numerous topics
*Fred Dallmayr, Packey J. Dee Professor in the departments of
philosophy and political science, University of Notre Dame*
... a heavy volume of breathtaking erudition, ambitious scope,
compelling insight, elaborate argumentation, occasional unwise
sideswipes, and profound insight, which makes [...] for an
exhausting, but richly rewarding read [...] an awesome tour
de force [...] a magnificent diagnosis and provocative series
of remedies in this remarkable book
*Revd Dr Sam Wells*
In a time of political instability where neither the Left nor the
Right have ideas around a unifying theme, Adrian Pabst and John
Milbank have developed a non- ideological framework of how
European countries and the U.S. can move forward around a value
based way of thinking about building healthy societies.
*Arnie Graf*
It is, of course, an ancient perception that democracy is not bound
to produce equality and justice. Milbank and Pabst focus their
exposition of this ancient truth on the abstract tendency of
democratic procedure to eliminate one-sided initiatives from public
decision-making, so defying the conditions of life in time, ‘both
spontanously creative and giving’.
*Modern Theology*
The book achieves a rare balance: it offers a deeply informative
theoretical account of the historical and philosophical foundations
of liberalism to advance the case for post-liberalism, along with a
remarkably detailed account of the practical implications of
post-liberal politics.
*Temenos Academy Review*
Milbank and Pabst are to be congratulated for producing the best
clarification and refutation of liberal metaphysics in English
[...] They bring a wonderful sense of outrage and humor to arguing
against all the pallid shibboleths of the age.
*First Things*
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