There is a circularity here I do not doubt. I am defending the Bible by the Bible. Circularity of a kind is unavoidable when one seeks to defend an ultimate standard of truth, for one's defense must itself be accountable to that standard.
John M. FrameTag: truth christianity religion logic authority the-bible
One of them is a very familiar personage. Her name is “Mother Church.” She is, in many ways, an admirable and dedicated person, deeply concerned about her children, endlessly and tirelessly careful for every detail of their welfare. Her long experience has taught her to understand her family very well. She knows their capabilities and she knows their weakness even better. She is patient and imperturbable, quite unshockable (she has witnessed all of the considerable range of human wickedness in her time) and there are no lengths to which she ill not go to educate her family. She has a huge fund of stories, maxims and advice, all of them time-tested, and usually interesting as well. She is very talented, skilled din creating a beautiful home for her children; she can show them how to enrich their lives with the glory of music and art. And there is no doubt that she loves God, and wishes to guide her children according to his will.
On the other hand, she is extremely inclined to feel that her will and God's are identical. In her eyes there can be no better, no other, way than hers. If she is unshockable, she is frequently cynical. She is shrewd, with a thoroughly earthy and often humorous shrewdness. She knows her children's limitations so well that she will not allow them to outgrow them. She will lie and cheat if she feels it is necessary to keep her charges safe; she uses her authority 'for their own good' but if it seems to be questioned she is ruthless in suppressing revolt. She is hugely self-satisfied, and her judgement, while experienced, is often insensitive and therefore cruel. She is suspicious of eccentricity and new ideas, since her own are so clearly effective, and non-conformists get a rough time, though after they are dead she often feels differently about them.
This is Mother Church, a crude, domineering, violent, loving, deceitful, compassionate old lady, a person to whom one cannot be indifferent, whom may one may love much and yet fight against, whom one may hate and yet respect.
Tag: church authority catholic institution
...each person is required to ask, 'what is my authority?' - on what do you base your decisions? if it's yourself, then you are without excuse...
John GeddesTag: decisions authority writer
...wherever there is society, there is authority and the temptation to disobedience because our individual wills refuse to submit...
John GeddesTag: society authority defiance disobedience willfulness
...a writer without authority? Impossible. as Kenneth Burke says, creation implies authority in the sense of originator....
John GeddesTag: writers authority writing-advice kenneth-burke
...authority is the unmistakeable tone in the voice of a true writer...
John GeddesTag: authority writing-advice writer voice tone
...bow to genius, but to the authority of that genius - not the display of talent...
John GeddesTag: talent writers genius authority
...when the room goes silent, someone has spoken with authority...
John Geddes...true authority is not based on control - it's based on truth...
John Geddes...people quote proverbs without realizing they're really in awe of the authority of their truth and the power of their expression...
John GeddesTag: truth writers proverbs authority writing-advice
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