Notes on Moral Theology: Authority in the Church

Abstract

[In section one of Notes on Moral Theology the author shows how a number of writers have argued that the weight of magisterial authority varies in accordance with the strength of the link between revelation and the teachings in question. Some have also pointed to the need to see the whole Church as a community of moral discourse in which dissent (or disagreement) plays an essential role in the pursuit of truth. Without changes in the structures that inhibit proper discourse, teachings can be (and sometimes are) merely imposed, even on members of the hierarchy.]