Books, Arts & Manners: A Crisis of Authority

Authority and Rebellion: The Case for Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church By Charles E. Rice Doubleday, 253 pp., $5.95 Although the depth and extent of the crisis have undoubtedly been much exaggerated by the mass media and by certain dissident Catholics, not always without malice prepense, there can be little question but that the Catholic Church has, since Vatican II, been involved in a serious crisis of authority. And for the Catholic Church a crisis of authority is a crisis that touches the institution at its very heart, for both history and theology concur in seeing the formative institutional principle of the Church of Rome to be its tradition of hierarchical authority, just as we may take the formative institutional principle of Protestantism to be the authority of the preached word. Hierarchical authority in the Church of Rome is not seen as merely a valid and efficient organizational arrangement; in its essence, it is an article of faith, dogmatically affirmed and held iure divino.

Charles E. Rice is, therefore, touching a really crucial problem in the Catholic Christian faith when he undertakes, as he does in this book, to discuss authority and rebellion in the Church of Rome and to make the case for traditional orthodoxy. He strives for, and measurably achieves, a double coverage, indicated by the title and subtitle of the work. In its narrower scope, it offers an effective presentation of what is indicated by the title, authority and rebellion in the Roman Church; in its broader scope, in line with the subtitle, “The Case for Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church,” it offers a quicksurvey encyclopedia of almost all issues disturbing the Church today, from the erosion of decency and the decay of morality to church-state relations (but why no index?). Merely to list, let alone to comment upon, all matters raised in this book would far outrun the limits of this review. I propose, therefore, to concentrate on the central theme—authority and rebellion in the Church— and to allow myself no more than a passing reference, if at all, to other matters included in the broader scope.

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Will Herberg

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Authority and Rebellion: The Case for Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church By Charles E. Rice Doubleday, 253 pp., $5.95 Although the depth and extent of the crisis have undoubtedly been much exaggerated by the mass media and by certain dissident Catholics, not always without malice prepense, there can be little question but that the Catholic Church has, since Vatican II, been involved in a serious crisis of authority. And for the Catholic Church a crisis of authority is a crisis that touches the institution at its very heart, for both history and theology concur in seeing the formative institutional principle of the Church of Rome to be its tradition of hierarchical authority, just as we may take the formative institutional principle of Protestantism to be the authority of the preached word. Hierarchical authority in the Church of Rome is not seen as merely a valid and efficient organizational arrangement; in its essence, it is an article of faith, dogmatically affirmed and held iure divino.

Charles E. Rice is, therefore, touching a really crucial problem in the Catholic Christian faith when he undertakes, as he does in this book, to discuss authority and rebellion in the Church of Rome and to make the case for traditional orthodoxy. He strives for, and measurably achieves, a double coverage, indicated by the title and subtitle of the work. In its narrower scope, it offers an effective presentation of what is indicated by the title, authority and rebellion in the Roman Church; in its broader scope, in line with the subtitle, “The Case for Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church,” it offers a quicksurvey encyclopedia of almost all issues disturbing the Church today, from the erosion of decency and the decay of morality to church-state relations (but why no index?). Merely to list, let alone to comment upon, all matters raised in this book would far outrun the limits of this review. I propose, therefore, to concentrate on the central theme—authority and rebellion in the Church— and to allow myself no more than a passing reference, if at all, to other matters included in the broader scope.