John Milbank on Multiculturalism

Image by World Economic Forum via Flickr

A week or so ago, British Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech on the hazards of a “separate but equal” state sponsored multiculturalism.

Radically Orthodox theologian John Milbank has offered a response that I can agree with, with a minor qualification in this article What David Cameron Should Have Said about multiculturalism.

A certain wise but rigorous “triangulation” is thereby enacted. For it is precisely the Christian legacy which historically opened up the “secular” space by both desacralizing the political and by creating the “Church” space of free association which has later evolved into the space of civil society. In this way the rights of the secular are guaranteed.

My minor qualification would be this. Yes, the Christian church did open up secular space by descralizing the political, but which church, in particular?: I would say the Negro church in the 1950s and 1960s that sparked the Civil Rights Movement, in the cosmic battle to racially integrate American society.

For an insightful theological response to Cameron’s speech, check out Tim McGee’s “Beneath theo-politics, the racial other: Cameron and “the Arab” in Britain.”

Also see my reflection on post-colonial theologian Joerg Rieger, post-modernity, and multiculturalism from a while back or my reflection on The Office episode entitled, “Diversity Day.”

RodtRDH

Formerly known as Rod of Alexandria, Rod the Rogue Demon Hunter Preacher of Hope | Black Scholar of Patristics | Writer for Nonviolent Politics. Destroyer of Trolls. It must be that angry puppy.

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