Paul Tillich’s approach to authority is characterized by his emphasis on the “method of correlation”—correlating culture’s existential questions with the religious symbols of Christianity. The primary symbol is Jesus as the Christ who is the “New Being.” In the living encounter with this symbol (facilitated by the Scriptures), humans receive God’s revelation and their salvation. Thus Tillich found the emergence of authority in the mediation of power and the new awareness of the self enabled by one’s encounter with the divine (the “ground of being”). Tillich’s whole theological approach was concerned to unite “sacred” and “secular” since all being is grounded in the divine reality of God.
A number of other views of authority have emerged from current theological movements and theologians. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) led Roman Catholicism to ecclesiastical reforms and to a view that church tradition helps ensure the correct interpretation of Scripture. The Council also taught that tradition does not contain any truth not also revealed in Scripture.
In the later 1970s some conservative Protestants formed the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI), which tried to reestablish and interpret the inerrancy of Scripture as the prime authority for today. Other conservative Protestants have preferred the term “infallibility” to designate Scripture’s authority for salvation and the life of faith.
Liberation theology emphasizes the priority of praxis, the practical situation, or beginning “where the pain is,” for engaging in theology. This means that human experience—whether that of the poor, Blacks, women, or others oppressed—has a decisive role as authority for theology. Experience is also central in process theology, where one is involved in the evolution of God and the world into future possibilities.
Authority Today. Today’s scene presents a wide array of sources appealed to as authorities for theology. The traditional bases—church and tradition, Scripture, Holy Spirit and experience, and reason—reemerge in varying ways as norms and criteria for theological discourse. Use of these sources is not drawn along specific ecclesiastical lines. In the pluralistic world of theology now, all appear with differing accents and emphases, thus pointing to the importance of the concept of authority for the full range of theological work. A sampling of voices on the current scene includes the following:
1. Process Theology. Process theology finds a compatibility between the analysis of reality provided by Alfred North Whitehead and basic Christian faith. Conscious beliefs are expressed through religious “doctrine.” These beliefs dramatically affect human existence. Christian doctrine makes human consciousness aware of elements of the universal experience of the divine, such as divine grace. In this way doctrines can shape attitudes, commitments, and human purposes, thereby altering the structures of human existence themselves. Thus, doctrine can carry “authority.” Scripture may be a source for “doctrine.” But Scripture’s authority emerges from the recognition of its concurrence with one’s own, self-evident experience. Christian doctrine and the Christian Scriptures can be sources through which one apprehends God’s unfolding action in the world. Scripture’s authority emerges through the insight and inspiration it provides as well as the new possibilities for experience it presents. In this way, Scripture and experience together can be sources of authority.
2. Narrative Theology. Theologians who stress the power of narratives to shape human life find the “narrative” of Scripture as well as the narratives within Scripture as sources of authority. Basic to this view is the emphasis on the shaping power of language to define human beings, to establish their boundaries, and give them the journeys of meaning they follow through life. The metaphors of narrative provide possibilities for new interpretations of reality to emerge through a personal set of images and a larger vision of the course and direction of one’s journey. These narratives invite response and participation, thus drawing one into the power they convey. Authority for narrative theologians comes through the Christian Scriptures that provide the central set of metaphors by which one’s life and vision can be shaped. The Christian gospel, as conveyed in the biblical stories, provides a “way of being in the world.” The gospel emerges as part of the larger story of Israel. The Christian community is the corporate body of those who “remember” the stories and seek to live truthfully in light of their commitments to the Christian message. In this way, the Scriptures provide stories that shape Christians to be faithful people.
3. Liberation Theologies. The various forms of Liberation theology today—Latin American, Black, Asian, Feminist, Womanist, and others—share a central conviction that experience and social location are key ingredients for doing theology and that theological statements reflect these elements even as they attempt as well to interpret the Scriptures.
For Latin American Liberation theologians, Scripture functions as the foundation for freedom. The Bible provides the paradigms, goals, and means through which human liberation can occur. The Scriptures also introduce the ultimate liberator, Jesus Christ. In the midst of oppression, injustice, and the ravages of economic devastation, Scripture provides an “authority” for human life in the praxis of the human community by presenting a God who has a “preferential option” for the poor and who is at work in the world to bring about human liberation. As the biblical model of liberation takes shape in communities, the Scriptures provide the life-giving word of freedom.
For Black theology, authority is also accorded to the Bible as it is interpreted in local church communities among those who are oppressed as black people and seek liberation from white domination in American society. The Scriptures are the conduit for understanding God’s being and acts. They are the church’s book and hold the primary place of authority within black churches. The Scriptures provide a liberating word since the biblical accounts portray a God who brings “salvation” through the process of “liberation.” A main paradigm is the exodus experience of the people of Israel who were liberated from the oppression of the Egyptians. As the Scriptures are read, interpreted, and proclaimed in the black community, the liberating word—focused in Jesus Christ himself—becomes an authoritative reality for those who are oppressed.
Asian theology also seeks liberation for oppressed people in Asia. It incorporates a blending of Christian stories with traditional Asian folktales and parables to provide a common witness for discerning God’s presence and actions in the world. Dialogue and conversations between Christians and those of other religious and cultural traditions are important ingredients in providing stories for freedom that can motivate and shape Asian peoples’ struggle for self-identity and human dignity. Authority emerges through those narratives that can be “re-imagined” and “contextualized” to provide a liberating word for people in need of freedom and hope.
Feminist and Womanist theologians find authority residing in their experience as women, particularly as women of color (womanist). In their experience of oppression, they turn to Scripture as the mother of models to provide the paradigms, visions, and hope needed to combat sexism, racism, and classism, and to further the liberation of women. These theologians seek to reclaim texts, interpret Scripture in light of liberation themes, and reconstruct biblical history in ways that will be liberating for women. In the critique of patriarchy and the yearning for the transformation of patriarchal and racist church structures, feminist and womanist theologians with their feminist critical consciousness appropriate the Bible’s prophetic tradition to work for the transformation of oppressed and marginalized persons and communities. Authority emerges as those with feminist and womanist consciousness appropriate liberating elements in Scripture and in their own experience.
4. Postmodern Theologies. Various theologies called “postmodern” share a view that there is no longer a single, universal worldview that affords a unified, all-encompassing, and universally valid explanation for all things. “Postmodernism” as an intellectual mood and cultural expression