Authority and Reality

CIVILIZING AUTHORITY: SOCIETY, STATE, AND CHURCH, P. Brennan, ed., Ch. 1, Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books, 2007

U of Michigan Public Law Working Paper No. 107

19 Pages Posted: 16 Jun 2008

See all articles by Joseph Vining

Joseph Vining

University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

This essay addresses both the pervasiveness of authority in the secular world and the shape and structure of the phenomenon of authority. It argues that what religious thought and Catholic thought in particular acknowledges as realities in the world, but conventional secular thought does not, are elements of the phenomenon of authority and in fact essential to social, economic, political, and scientific enterprise under the conditions of modernity. The various contributions Catholic thought can make today to jurisprudence and to legal and judicial practice will have their source in this acknowledgment, which can help the secular world move toward a more conscious apprehension of what is implicit in its practices and necessary to its aspirations.

Keywords: Catholicism, authority, religion, modernity, personhood, good faith, torture

JEL Classification: Z1

Suggested Citation

Vining, Joseph, Authority and Reality. CIVILIZING AUTHORITY: SOCIETY, STATE, AND CHURCH, P. Brennan, ed., Ch. 1, Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books, 2007, U of Michigan Public Law Working Paper No. 107, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1144867

Joseph Vining (Contact Author)

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States

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