Where Does Holy Teaching Leave Philosophy? Questions on Milbank's Aquinas

Abstract

Focusing on two essays in John Milbank's The Word Made Strange, Lash argues that Milbank's claim that, for Aquinas, ‘the domain of metaphysics is not simply subordinate to, but completely evacuated by theology’ is unwarranted. First, Milbank's notion of metaphysics often lacks historical specificity. Second, Lash defends recent studies of Aquinas on analogy against Milbank's critique, and questions his construal of ens commune. Concluding sections challenge Milbank's reading of the Prologue to Aquinas's commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics, suggesting a more nuanced reading of the relations between philosophy (and, by implication, the whole sweep of the physical, moral and social sciences) and ‘holy teaching’.