Nashville Cohort: Radical Orthodoxy Resources

A few years ago I heard Graham Ward lecture on Narrative and revelation at the University of South Africa. He was touted as a proponent of "Radical Orthodoxy". The name appealed to me, though I'm not too sure of the concept.

Nashville Cohort: Radical Orthodoxy Resources

Much longer ago, in 1966, a bloke called Bob Towler interviewed me. He was doing a sociological study on theological education, and wanted to know my churchmanship. There were five choices:

1. Anglo-Catholic
2. Prayerbook Catholic
3. Modern churchman
4. Liberal Evangelical
5. Conservative Evangelical

I said "none of the above", but that wouldn't do. So I suggested both (1) and (5), but that wouldn't do either. He said he would put me down as "Prayerbook Catholic" because I was from South Africa, and the last guy he had met from South Africa was one of those.

Over the next few days this stuck in my mind. How would I describe my "churchmanship", or ecclesiastical position, or whatever it was. Eventually I settled on "Revolutionary Orthodox", even though that wasn't one of Bob Towler's choices.

It was based on G.K. Chesterton's idea that as long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will always remain exactly the same.

I'm not sure how that fits in with "Radical Orthodoxy" -- does anyone know?

Another link to related topics is in Elwe's Journal on "Both ends of the spectrum.