“The alternative to authority is not some free-form utopia but coercion, domination, violence, and unaccountable methods and systems of manipulating persons.” So argued Jean Bethke Elshtain (1941–2013) in a 1999 article titled “Democratic Authority at Century’s End.” In the article (published in The Hedgehog Review), Elshtain summarized concerns expressed by Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) about the viability of democratic governance in the wake of widespread suspicion toward the very idea of authority. Elshtain observes that authority is finally unintelligible without recognition of transcendent order (and Orderer) with which our wills and actions should be aligned. In this Feature, Ken Myers reads the entire text of Elshtain’s article.
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More to hear . . .
In the first of a series exploring the meaning of authority, this Feature presents a 2011 interview with theologian Victor Lee Austin, discussing his book Up with Authority: Why We Need Authority to Flourish as Human Beings (T & T Clark, 2010). Rather than assuming that authority is the enemy of freedom, Austin argues that many acts of free persons can only be effected while under authority. Also included is a short reading on authority from Harry Blamires’s classic book The Christian Mind.
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Related reading and listening
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