Theologian Milbank to deliver 2024 Teel Lecture

The lecture will take place at 10 a.m. on Sunday, December 8 in the Zapara School of Business building, Room 235. This year’s Teel Lecturer will present remotely from the United Kingdom. A reception will follow the lecture in the business school lobby.

John Milbank is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham and President of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy. He has taught not only at Nottingham but also at the University of Virginia, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Lancaster.

He is the author or co-author of thirteen monographs (with two more under contract), the co-editor of four scholarly essay collections, the author of four books of poetry, and the author or co-author of over 140 journal articles and book chapters. He studied history at Oxford and theology at Cambridge before earning a PhD in philosophy at the University of Birmingham in 1986; in 1998, the University of Cambridge presented him with an earned higher doctorate, a DD, for his work in philosophical theology.

Professor Milbank launched the highly influential Radical Orthodoxy movement in theology along with his sometime doctoral student Catherine Pickstock and sometime colleague Graham Ward and serves as co-editor of the journal Radical Orthodoxy. His book Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason, the movement’s founding text, has been translated into Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian and has been the subject of special issues of multiple journals and the focus of graduate seminars at institutions including Duke, Harvard, Notre Dame, Uppsala, Erlangen, Berlin, Budapest, Leuven, and Edinburgh.

Before delivering the Teel Lecture, Professor Milbank had already been invited to present Stanton Lectures at the University of Cambridge, Rockwell Lectures at the General Theological Seminary, and Snuggs Lectures at the University of Tulsa. In addition, he has spoken at, among many other venues, the Angelicum in Rome, the Jesuit University of Mexico, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s conference on Christian-Islamic relations in Georgetown, the Hay on Wye Festival of Ideas, St Tikhon’s University in Moscow, and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland; he has also appeared on multiple television and radio programs in various countries.

Professor Milbank chaired the think tank Res Publica from 2010 to 2017. A lay Anglican, he has preached at churches in Cambridge, Oxford, Southwell, and London. He is married to Alison Milbank, an Anglican priest and theologian; they are the parents of Arabella and Sebastian and the grandparents of Aubrey and Ivor.

The Teel Lectures honor the memories of Charles Teel, Jr., a deeply impactful member of La Sierra University's religion faculty over many decades, and Marta Pastor Teel, a long-time member of the faculty of Bloomington High School. They are recognized for their commitment to positive social change and transformative teaching. For information please email gchartie@lasierra.edu.