By What Authority?
Dr. C.’s midweek Bible class at Our Lady of Confidence Catholic Church, San Diego, CA.
(Listen to an audio version of the blog post below)
As most of you know, I spent nearly thirty years on the English Department faculty at UCLA where I taught, among other things, The English Bible as Literature. During that time I took my UCLA class into the larger community, teaching verse-by-verse through the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, in five and seven-year programs. My classes were quite large—300-500 adult students in each—and they were deliberately ecumenical, drawing students from Roman Catholic parishes as well as from a vast array of Protestant denominations throughout southern California and Arizona.
And that’s when trouble began.
“By what authority are you doing this?” I was asked by church leaders, and “what exactly are you teaching?” At the time those questions were deeply troubling to me, but looking back I can understand their concerns. After all, I had thousands of people for two hours every week for years at a time, taking them verse-by-verse through the entire bible with no ecclesial oversight whatsoever. What would ensure that I was not distorting scripture, interjecting my own opinions or leading people astray? When I look back on it today, I deeply appreciate those pastors—both Roman Catholic and Protestant—who trusted me to instruct their parishioners and congregants . . . but I must admit, they took a big risk in doing so. As one evangelical pastor told me, “I see my congregation every week for one hour (if I’m lucky), and I preach a 30-minute sermon; you see them every week for two hours for half a decade and I have no idea what you’re teaching them!”
I recently read Richard Gaillardetz’s book, By What Authority? A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium and the Sense of the Faithful (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2018). In the four parts of his book Gaillardetz, a Roman Catholic and professor of theology at Boston College, explores: 1) the role of power and authority in the Church and the nature of divine revelation; 2) the role of scripture and tradition; 3) the magisterium; and 4) the authority of the believing community, or sensus fidei. I’ve written previous blogs on the nature of divine revelation and on the relationship between scripture and tradition; in this blog I’d like to address the magisterium and sensus fidei.
In a nutshell, the magisterium is the collective teaching authority of the college of bishops under the leadership of the Pope. As Gaillardetz points out, “magisterium” derives from the Latin noun magister, or “teacher.” In the Middle Ages “magisterium” referred broadly to the authority of all teachers in the church: scholars, theologians, bishops and the Pope. Over time, though, the definition narrowed to specify solely the teaching authority of the bishops in union with the Pope and their teaching on church doctrine. In today’s Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed., Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, digital edition, 2020) we read concerning the magisterium:
"The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome. Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith” (III, 85, 86).
Importantly, the magisterium recognizes that “sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the Word of God, committed to the Church” (DV II, 10), and the magisterium is not independent of this, since “all that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith” (Catechism, III, 86).
“Authority” is always a tricky thing, though. Vatican II marked a major paradigm shift in how the church viewed itself in relation to the modern world. In many ways Vatican II loosened the reins, freeing the church from many earlier traditional constraints. In the field of scripture studies, the church opened the door and welcomed the historical-critical method of textual analysis, as well as narrative analysis, socio-rhetorical analysis and feminist and liberationist readings; in addition, the church invited scholars to explore other approaches to scripture, as well. In liturgy, the traditional Latin Mass moved to the back burner, as Mass in the vernacular was introduced, as well as such things as liturgical song and dance and (oh, the horror, altar girls) . . . much to the chagrin of the traditionalists. Indeed, the traditionalists charged the liberals with inappropriate experimentation, dissent and impiety, while the liberals chaffed under the magisterium’s perceived oppressive and penal tactics.
But legitimate authority is necessary in the church if we are to live fully and rightly as the body of Christ. I have a friend in Virginia who is a life-long Southern Baptist and he mentioned that Southern Baptists recognize no authority beyond Scripture itself, which is interpreted solely by each person as he or she is led by the Holy Spirit. And then he added: “That’s why Southern Baptists can’t agree on anything!”
In addition to the teaching authority of the magisterium, the church recognizes as well the “sense of faith” (the sensus fidei) of God’s people. It is a term that appeared for the first time in the documents of Vatican II, but its concept goes back to the church’s beginning. Christian faith is not a passive acceptance of doctrine handed down from on high, but an ongoing and ever-developing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of a believing community, guided by the Holy Spirit and operating within the guardrails of the church’s teaching. Lumen gentium captured the essence of sensus fidei well:
“The holy people of God shares also in Christ’s prophetic office: it spreads abroad a living witness to him, especially by a life of faith and love and by offering to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips confessing his name. The whole body of the faithful who have received an anointing which comes from the holy one cannot be mistaken in belief. It shows this characteristic through the entire people’s supernatural sense of the faith [sensus fidei], when, “from the bishops to the last of the faithful” it manifests a universal consensus in matters of faith and morals. By this sense of the faith [sensus fidei], aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the people of God, guided by the sacred magisterium which it faithfully obeys, receives not the word of human beings, but truly the word of God, “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” The people unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply through right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life” (LG 12).
God works through the magisterium, but he also works through the people of God, not in conflict with the magisterium, but in harmony with it.
As I said at the beginning of this blog, the pastors who invited my into their parishes and congregations took a big risk. I deeply appreciate their trust and their support, both then and now. And I pray mightily that I taught (and continue to teach) the word of God with honesty, integrity and without compromise, “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2: 15, KJV).