Alison Milbank

Alison Grant Milbank ( Legg; born 10 October 1954) is a British Anglican priest and literary scholar specialising in religion and culture. She is Canon Theologian at Southwell Minster and Professor of Theology and Literature at the University of Nottingham in its Department of Theology and Religious Studies.

Early life and education Milbank was born Alison Grant Legg on 10 October 1954. She studied theology and English literature at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1978; as per tradition, she proceeded to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) degree in 1981. She undertook a year of teacher training with the University of Cambridge and completed her Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in 1979. She joined the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Nottingham, in September 2004. and she has been Professor of Theology and Literature since 2022.

Milbank's research and teaching focuses on the relation of religion to culture in the post-Enlightenment period, with particular literary interest in non-realist literary and artistic expression, such as the Gothic, the fantastic, horror and fantasy. She has published a book on the Catholic poetics of J. R. R. Tolkien and G. K. Chesterton. She is currently working on a book which will trace the theological history of the emergence of the Gothic from the pre-Reformation period to the present day.

Ordained ministry From 2005 to 2006, Milbank trained for ordained ministry on the East Midlands Ministry Training Course. Since 2017, she has been canon theologian of Southwell Minster: she was installed as canon during a service at the cathedral on 15 October 2017.

Personal life In 1978, she married the theologian John Milbank.

Selected works God and the Gothic: Religion, Romance and Reality in the English Literary Tradition, Oxford University Press, 2018.

Chesterton and Tolkien as theologians: the fantasy of the real, T & T Clark, 2007,