Up with Authority

Reviews / Votes

'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 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, USA '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 Interview with the author in the Mars Hill Audio Journal, Vol. 107 Austin draws on thinkers such as Catholic philosopher Yves R. Simon, Michael Polanyi, and Oliver O'Donovan to put forth not simply an elegant defence of authority, but a captivating portrait of a world in which authority contributes irreplaceably to the larger task of cultural development. At the end of this book, the reader may feel as if she has just finished a healthy and satisfying meal whose every course makes the whole a memorable experience. http://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/2885/ -- www.Cardus.ca ... [a] subtle and elegantly argued book... At a time when university education in this country looks set to move in a more utilitarian direction, it is encouraging to see that the author of this book holds the post of theologian-in-residence at a church. -- Church Times Up with Authority is a profound and profoundly important book. -- Touchstone 'In his wonderful recent book, Up With Authority (T&T Clark, 2010), Victor Lee Austin uses the analogy of an orchestra to explain why authority is necessary for human life to flourish.' -- First Things * First Things * Authority must exist and be exercised if we are to have the possibility of being fully human, of living well, and this is so in every human society. This is the thesis of Victor Lee Austin's book and his argument is convincing... He knows that his argument goes against the stream, but his approach is not remotely defensive. Rather, his book is punctuated with wry humour. -- Nicholas Townsend, Sarum College, Salisbury * Studies in Christian Ethics *