Up with Authority: Why We Need Authority to Flourish as Human Beings - Hardcover

Austin, Victor Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 056730809X ISBN 13: 9780567308092

Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2010

Synopsis

Authority is something we experience every day, but is it necessary? Many think that it is not, and that it exists only as a remedy for some defect in us. Victor Lee Austin sets about exploring the higher and nobler functions of authority, and in doing so reveals its human importance as more than simply a provision for human inadequacies.

A significant contribution to Christian anthropology, the book illuminates an indispensable feature of human sociality: the need for, and the good provided by, authority. In enabling us to do more complex activities, to gain and communicate understanding of the world around us and to flourish in political communities, authority ultimately leads us to enjoy God.

Victor Lee Austin makes a unique contribution to political theology by deliberating the ways that authority functions both socially and epistemologically. The field of ecclesiology is also enriched by the book's discussion of authority as at once necessary and fallible. Those interested in the work of Michael Polanyi, Yves Simon, or Oliver O'Donovan will find these authors brought into the broader conversation about authority in an engaging way.

About this title

About the Author:

The Reverend Victor Lee Austin, Ph.D., is Theologian-in-residence at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. He is the author of scholarly articles in political theology, ecclesiology, and social ethics, as well as two volumes of theological reflections on everyday life: A Priest's Journal; and more recently, Priest in New York: Church, Street, and Theology.

Review:

Our postmodern era views authority as something to be grimly endured — or simply overthrown. Victor Austin writes against this antinomian sensibility. His clear, accessible and convincing analysis shows how moral, political, and religious authority brings order to society and beauty to the soul. (R. R. Reno, Department of Theology, Creighton University)

Father Austin's style is energetic and engaging, his thought enriched by decades as priest, teacher, and theologian, and his thesis compels attention: social beings require authority to flourish, and we are social beings from the beginning of this life to beyond its end. We need not accept all of his premises to benefit from this wide-ranging essay, fortunately so, since the author at times plays the smiling contrarian who invites us all to revisit our assumptions. For readers who have taken social order as rooted in either persuasion or compulsion, and so assumed that authority is derivative, transient, postlapsarian, the dead hand of the past, or the polite mask of force, this book offers a clear-headed alternative. Austin explores the ineliminable centrality of fallible authority in our social, epistemic, political, and ecclesial communal lives, and discerns structures of authority in the Trinity and the paradisal life of friends living together. In part Christian theology, in part humane anthropology, in part philosophical reflection, this is altogether a galvanizing book. (Ronald Mawby, Whitney Young School of Honors and Liberal Studies, Kentucky State University)

'Our postmodern era views authority as something to be grimly endured — or simply overthrown. Victor Austin writes against this antinomian sensibility. His clear, accessible and convincing analysis shows how moral, political, and religious authority brings order to society and beauty to the soul.' — R. R. Reno, Department of Theology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA. (R.R. Reno)

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 'Father Austin's style is energetic and engaging, histhought enriched by decades as priest, teacher, and theologian, and his thesiscompels attention: social beings require authority to flourish, and we aresocial beings from the beginning of this life to beyond its end. We neednot accept all of his premises to benefit from this wide-ranging essay,fortunately so, since the author at times plays the smiling contrarian whoinvites us all to revisit our assumptions. For readers who have takensocial order as rooted in either persuasion or compulsion, and so assumed thatauthority is derivative, transient, postlapsarian, the dead hand of the past,or the polite mask of force, this book offers a clear-headed alternative.Austin exploresthe ineliminable centrality of fallible authority in our social, epistemic,political, and ecclesial communal lives, and discerns structures ofauthority in the Trinity and the paradisal life of friends livingtogether. In part Christian theology, in part humane anthropology, inpart philosophical reflection, this is altogether a galvanizing book.' — RonaldMawby, Whitney Young School of Honors and Liberal Studies, Kentucky StateUniversity, USA (Ronald Mawby)

'His account is in no way naïve. Indeed, his reflections on how "we live with fallible authority" which would always be in season, are particularly timely just now.' (National Review)

'Our postmodern era views authority as something to be grimly endured — or simply overthrown. Victor Austin writes against this antinomian sensibility. His clear, accessible and convincing analysis shows how moral, political, and religious authority brings order to society and beauty to the soul.’ – R. R. Reno, Department of Theology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA. (Sanford Lakoff)

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 'Father Austin’s style is energetic and engaging, histhought enriched by decades as priest, teacher, and theologian, and his thesiscompels attention: social beings require authority to flourish, and we aresocial beings from the beginning of this life to beyond its end.  We neednot accept all of his premises to benefit from this wide-ranging essay,fortunately so, since the author at times plays the smiling contrarian whoinvites us all to revisit our assumptions.  For readers who have takensocial order as rooted in either persuasion or compulsion, and so assumed thatauthority is derivative, transient, postlapsarian, the dead hand of the past,or the polite mask of force, this book offers a clear-headed alternative. Austin exploresthe ineliminable centrality of fallible authority in our social, epistemic,political, and ecclesial communal lives,  and discerns structures ofauthority in the Trinity and the paradisal life of friends livingtogether.  In part Christian theology, in part humane anthropology, inpart philosophical reflection, this is altogether a galvanizing book.’ – RonaldMawby, Whitney Young School of Honors and Liberal Studies, Kentucky StateUniversity, USA (Sanford Lakoff)

'His account is in no way naïve. Indeed, his reflections on how “we live with fallible authority” which would always be in season, are particularly timely just now.’ (Sanford Lakoff)

Interview with the author in the Mars Hill Audio Journal, Vol. 107

"Our postmodern era views authority as something to be grimly endured -- or simply overthrown. Victor Austin writes against this antinomian sensibility. His clear, accessible and convincing analysis shows how moral, political, and religious authority brings order to society and beauty to the soul."
- R. R. Reno, Department of Theology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 056730809X
• ISBN 13: 9780567308092
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192