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

Austin, Victor Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0567020517 ISBN 13: 9780567020512

Publisher: 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

Review:

'His account is in no way naive. Indeed, his reflections on how 'we live with fallible authority' which would always be in season, are particularly timely just now.' --National Review, 21st Feb 2011

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 Christian Ethics: A Guide for the Perplexed and

About this edition

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0567020517
• ISBN 13: 9780567020512
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 182