He first gained recognition after publishing Theology and Social Theory in 1990, which laid the theoretical foundations for the movement which later became known as radical orthodoxy.

[31] Milbank's friendship and substantial intellectual common ground with David Bentley Hart has been noted several times by both thinkers.

[34] The University of Cambridge awarded him a senior Doctor of Divinity degree in recognition of published work in 1998.

A key part of the controversy surrounding Milbank concerns his view of the relationship between theology and the social sciences.

(As Contemporary Authors summarises his thought, "the Christian mythos alone 'is able to rescue virtue from deconstruction into violent, agonistic difference.

Milbank, together with Graham Ward and Catherine Pickstock, has helped forge a new trajectory in constructive theology known as radical orthodoxy – a predominantly Anglo-Catholic approach which is highly critical of modernity.