2 thoughts on “The Problem of Autonomy”

1. Jim Gray June 27, 2013 at 12:02 am

   I will broaden the discussion, if I may.
   Firstly, as you describe, God’s authority is mediated by human institutions ie governments, kings etc. We are to pray for them and recognize that these are the embodiment of God’s authority on earth.
   Likewise, we need to ask ourselves, how is God’s authority mediated in the spiritual realm. Some say that there is no need for any human institutional mediation and may go as far as to say that I recognize the authority of God in my personal reading of (say) the bible. But we know that (according to that same bible), God’s authority was mediated by Jesus, incarnate Son of God, fully divine, but also fully human. Before He departed, with the authority of God Almighty, He conveyed that authority to the Apostles. They likewise conveyed that authority to their successors. Some of the Apostles and some of their successors not only ruled the newly formed Kingdom of God via preaching, teaching and administering sacraments (baptism etc), but also wrote as the Holy Spirit inspired them, a variety of documents, which within a relatively short time, grew to a plethora of written “authorities”. Of course there was an Old Testament, which was recognized as the written authority, but it would not be until late in the 4th century that the collective wisdom of the bishops (successors of the apostles) would finally decide on the canon we have today. As I said there were a plethora of documents many claiming authority, but it was the living authority of God in the Church that assumed the responsibility of concluding what we today refer to as the New Testament. Clearly I am arguing that there was first a living authority in the leadership of the Church, and only much later a shared authority in terms of Church and Bible.
   So for the next 1200 years, there was an understanding that God’s authority in the temporal realm was mediated by secular rulers and God’s authority in the spiritual realm was Church and Bible. There was no such notion as “bible alone” until the 16th century, that notion being an innovation of reformers who, lamenting the poor moral state of the Church (and particularly its leadership) at the time, wanted to usurp that authority from said Church. Much of what the protestors (soon called protestants) had to say on the laxity of morals at the time was valid. But reformers like Luther and Calvin or Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer set in motion the seeds of individual autonomy in spiritual matters. Luther was horrified to witness that large numbers of people in his day took his protests as a basis for a much more radical abandonment of God’s authority through the Church, an authority structure that had stood for 1500 years. The next 500 years outside the Universal Church have seen the exponential schisming of Church. How can one argue coherently that the tens of thousands of divisions of the visible church make sense to the New Testament’s idea of One LORD, One Faith, One baptism?
   So, we have ecclesial structures today that make Christian practice that mirrors the quote from Judges – everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Am I wrong?
   Today the Supreme Court of the US handed down some society changing ruling on the definition of marriage, an institution that has generally been regarded as critical in this society. If Christians had am understood and shared authority (since presumable God does have a view on this matter), they they would have all either been celebrating the redefinition of marriage or lamenting it. But at the National Cathedral in DC (Episcopal), the bells rang in celebration of the decision for 45 minutes today, as they did at other Christian churches around Washington. Elsewhere other Christians were tearing their hair out over SCOTUS’s decision. Isn’t the bible supposed to be the authority of these Christians? Isn’t the bible clear on the mind of God in this matter? On the face of it, the answer to these two questions is not at all clear. But how can that be if God’s authority is working among the people of God?
   These days I find it less than satisfying to simply attempt to marginalize those protestants who propose a different biblical hermeneutic to myself. If they have the authority to “protest” then don’t they have the right to interpret scripture in a way that pays no attention to the Great Tradition? In practical terms, the will of God still needs to be mediated via a Living Voice that is authoritative. There needs to be an “umpire” that has the authority of God to make decisions on matters where people read the bible differently. This is not new. A good example in the US is when in the lead up to the Civil War Northern methodists argued from the bible that slavery was repugnant to God. Equally vocal were southern methodists who preached from the text for the retention of the traditional order. Methodists were far and away the largest protestant denomination in the US in the 1850’s and this issue split them hideously.
   I could give countless examples of where societal changes have caused further fragmentation of Christian witness, but y’all get the idea. So, returning to the post…who speaks with the authority of God in these matters? Does it not bother us that Christians who confess the same Lord, Jesus Christ, are today on diametrically opposite sides of an issue that strikes at the heart of what was traditionally a sacrament of the Church – something so fundamental that St Paul analogizes it to the mystery of the relationship between Christ and the Church?
   My conclusion is that despite 2000 years of Christian history, Christendom evidently has a ways to go in agreeing on the practicalities of how the Authority of God works in matters of faith and morals.
2. Cathy Horning May 31, 2013 at 8:50 pm

   I confess, I’ve always wrestled with the whole idea of voting for our leaders, since all authority is from God. This helped shed a new light on my thinking. Great post! And, perfect photos!

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