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Stage by stage, then, the Church must build itself up, its work at home rendering possible more work abroad, and the work abroad bringing new inspiration for the work at home; until at last the one Purpose of God will govern all mankind, and the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ is made known.

For the Church is the Body of Christ; and its growth is the growth of the Body of Christ. He is the Head-the source of all its purpose, the guiding and dominant fact. But a head without a body, or with a maimed, imperfect body, is ineffective; its purpose may be excellent, but its achievement will be small. So Christ in Himself is complete; in His earthly Life the whole character of God was manifest. But in power over the world He is incomplete until the Church, His Body, the instrument by which He accomplishes His will, is complete. For it is His Body, "the completion of Him who all in all is being fulfilled." As Origen remarks in commenting on this phrase: "We may conceive of a king as being filled with kingdom in respect of each of those who augment his kingdom, and being emptied thereof in the case of those who revolt from their king.. Wherefore

Christ is fulfilled in all that come unto Him, whereas He is still lacking in respect of them before they have come." And our task is not only to extend the power of Christ over the nations who do not know Him, but thereby to develop to its completion that power itself.

It is not the historic Life of Jesus, cut off from its historic consequence, but it is the work in human history of Jesus and His Church, that brings men's souls to God and establishes God's Kingdom on the earth.

"To Him be glory in the Church
and in Christ Jesus."

1 Cf. Armitage Robinson, ad loc.

VIII

THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTHORITY

BY

A. E. J. RAWLINSON

TUTOR OF KEBLE COLLEGE, OXFORD

I. AUTHORITY AND TRUTH.

II. AUTHORITY AND CHURCH ORDER.

III. AUTHORITY AND REUNION.

APPENDIX. The Historical Origins of the Christian Ministry.

SYNOPSIS

I. AUTHORITY AND TRUTH.

The modern opposition of "authority" and "the Spirit ” rests on a misunderstanding. The idea of authority has been interwoven with that of inspiration and stereotyped by legalism. If "authority" be taken in its classical sense (ie. as auctoritas) it will be recognized as a principle on which men ordinarily act in every sphere of human interest: why not, therefore, in that of Religion?

Discussion of the inter-relation of religious "authority” and "inspiration." An inspired authority not necessarily infallible. Infallibilist view of authority developed as the logical corollary of an over-mechanical view of inspiration. Problem of the "seat of authority" the nemesis of this. An appeal made successively (a) from the "prophet” to the Bishop (as custodian of tradition); (b) from the individual Bishop to the Synod; (c) from the Synod to the Council. Authority conceived as vested in officials. Papal Infallibility the logical outcome of a one-sided development.

Repudiation of the idea of authority by Protestantism equally one-sided. Historically, Protestantism untrue to itself in substituting infallible Book for infallible Church. Modern Ritschlianism reverts to the position of Luther in falling back upon "witness of the Spirit": inadequacy of Ritschlian view. An attempt at restatement must start from the classical meaning of "auctoritas" and from a study in the light of this of actual religious psychology. Three phases in the life of the educated Christian :

(a) Tutelage or "bondage to authority"-the stage proper to childhood. The failure of "simple believers" to transcend this stage impoverishes their intellectual but not necessarily their religious life.

(b) The stage of "abstract freedom," i.e. the assertion of the right to criticize and, if necessary, to deny : leading on to

(c) The final stage of "concrete freedom," i.e. voluntary assent on grounds of reason to what was formerly believed "on authority." The final stage represents an ideal gressively realized but never completely attained

pro

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The critical stage is the second: the conditions of a true solution of the individual problem are lacking if the authority of the Church is ignored. But by the authority of the Church must be understood the corporate witness of the saints to the validity of the spiritual experience on which their lives are based and what is guaranteed by the consensus sanctorum is rather a life than a theology

:

Nevertheless the hypothesis of the validity of spiritual experience must inevitably involve dogmatic implications: and the truth of the spiritual and moral values of the Christian life will be found in the long run to carry with it the substance of traditional "orthodoxy

II. AUTHORITY AND CHURCH ORDER.

::

Conceptions of the Christian Ministry are of two types, "Catholic" and "Protestant," "priestly" and "prophetic' these terms defined: they determine controversies of Church Order, which are misrepresented when treated as disputes about origins

Inconclusiveness of argument from history:

(a) Ambiguity of historical evidence as such.

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(b) Nature of our Lord's Messianic outlook as affecting
the problem.

(c) Legitimate appeal on Protestant side to post-Reforma

tion experience

383

I. Statement of "Protestant" view of Ministry and Sacra

ments

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the

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Some criticisms of this from "Catholic" standpoint

II. Statement of "Catholic" view of Sacraments: "Catholic" view of Ministry as corollary of this-("One Bread, One Body," therefore ideally One Ministry)

Catholicism compared and contrasted with Congregationalism

The historic Episcopate defended :

(i.) As embodying principle of continuity with the past.
(ii.) As expressing the idea of an authority wider than that
of the local Church.

(iii.) As magnifying the office rather than the man.

(iv.) As required for the mediation of the "Catholic" type

of piety

.

On the other hand, Episcopacy need not imply either—

(a) a vicious "clericalism," or

(b) prelacy, or

(c) autocracy, or

(d) a magical view of Orders

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