Published on September 27, 2024
How does Bruce Lincoln describe authority in his book Authority: Construction and corrosion? Does the concept of authority relate to religion, power and violence? If so, how?
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE
Authority is a complicated matter that can be found in every era of human existence, starting with man’s creation, when God forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the tree that was in the middle of the Garden. In a simple equation, authority is always accompanied by rebellion – see the act of resistance of the primordial couple.
This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of authority from Bruce Lincoln’s point of view as presented in his book Authority: Construction and Corrosion.
The subject of authority can be related to many aspects of society, but today I will focus on how this concept relates to religion, power, and violence.
RESULTS
Starting with the idea that authority is always connected to persuasion and force (Lincoln, 2019, p. 4), Bruce Lincoln states that he does not describe this notion as an entity but as an effect (Lincoln, 2019, p. 116) that can operate inside of an established context that implies a transmitter and receiver. There is to observe that this relationship is based on asymmetry that put from the start these two participants in an inequity.
To demonstrate what authority means and how it plays, Bruce Lincoln offers three examples from history, highlighting the process of corrosion that erodes the concept of authority.
Very interesting in their inner meaning, these samples of narrative (more precisely, the scene of Thersites from Iliad – Chapter 2; the assassination of Julius Caesar – in Chapter 3 – Rumours and prophecies; and the story of Egils saga Skallagrimssonar in Chapter 4 – Law, curses, and derision) operate as examples to illustrate the idea that authority is built just to be demolished by a corrosive process of rebellion.
Having its roots in Rome’s beginning, when the last king, Tarquinius Suberbus, was removed from reign, an act that shows how much Romans hated their kings, Caesar’s assassination in the Senate is nothing else but an act of resistance in front of a leader who wanted to be a monarch.
Chapter 7 presents the relationship between authority and religion pointing out that there is very strong evidence that these two concepts are bonded together by the idea of dominion. To sustain his perspective, Bruce Lincoln invokes again key moments from history – Carpunia’s dream (Lincoln, 2019, p. 103), Agamemnon’s sceptre (Lincoln, 2019, pp. 104-105), Cotta’s divine meditations (Lincoln, 2019, p. 106).
To determine how the concept of authority is connected to religion, power, and violence we need to go further in history considering the Great Schism and then the Schism produced inside Catholic Church that led to the apparition of Reformation.
1054, the year of the Great Schism, was the moment when the Christian Church, as it was after the crucifixion, split because the Eastern part of the Empire wanted independence from Rome and papal jurisdiction, and due to many other sensitive issues, such as Filioque, unleavened bread and priests’ marriage.
In the Christian world, this was probably the most violent decision ever made, since Jesus said that “on Peter He will build his Church” (Matthew 16:18) (τὴν ἐκκλησίαν – meaning the gathering of citizens, is a noun in Accusative, singular, in Greek). Saying this, Jesus did not mention two, three or more churches but one.
As a parallelism, we notice here the same type of rebellion that we met in Genesis when Eve decided that is good to eat from the forbidden tree.
The Schism and the apparition of Reformation are examples of the corrosion of religious authority that had even violent consequences (e.g. majoritarian Reformates, Germans waged a campaign of oppression against Catholics that reaches its higher level during the Third Reich when the Nazi persecuted Catholic believers).
DISCUSSION / SUMMARY
Therefore, though a very sensitive subject, I can conclude that the relationship between authority and religion became violent sometimes throughout history.
Deep connected to the concept of power, authority is the one that marked the main events provoking major consequences for all those who participated.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lincoln, B. (2019). Authority: Construction and Corrosion. University of Chicago Press.
