Christology in a postmodern context: John Milbank's sacrifice and gift

My dissertation is a critical exploration of Milbank's theological project in the postmodern context, focusing on Christology as a primary illustration. I am affirming Milbank's positive contributions and critical postmodern logic, while calling into question some of Milbank's more dubious, unwarranted theological claims. I affirm Milbank's theological endeavors to radicalize traditional claims of the Church in the postmodern context. With the vision of the Christian transformation of Greek philosophy, Milbank seeks to re-describe the whole world within the Christian theological framework. Yet I argue that Milbank does not fully achieve his project primarily because of his problematic move to intensify neo-Platonic elements in his theology and to re-describe Christian theology within his theoretical edifice, that is, the quasi-Christian/quasi-Platonic---not exactly orthodox---framework. I describe how Milbank bases his Christian metanarrative on a Neoplatonic monistic ontology, which appears to underlie his theology as a whole, especially his Christology. I argue that his ontological monism is essentially linked with his Christological monism. While providing some advantages, such a view generates problematic notions, such as the fusion of humanity and divinity in Christ, the co-eternity of humanity and divinity in God, and our participation in the continuing atonement. I also address his social theology of forgiveness which is based on the logic of asymmetrical reciprocity. With the logic of reciprocity, Milbank calls into question the postmodern discourse on sacrifice and gift. For a critical investigation of Milbank's theological project, I address postmodernism, Radical Orthodoxy, theurgic Neoplatonism, Lindbeck's postliberal theology, Bulgakov's sophiology, Girard's anthropology, and Marion's phenomenology.