The Problem of Spiritual Authority in England

THE PROBLEM OF SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND ERNEST BARKER I. T HE spiritual experience of humanity may be regarded as the spiritual authority for humanity. The profoundest depths which our race has plumbed; the steepest heights it has climbed-these become, in each sphere of the spirit (art or poetry or religion), the standard or authority for -succeeding generations. One of the forms of spiritual experience, a form so distinctive that it is sui generis, is that which is called the religious. This is the experience attained, the depths plumbed, the heights climbed, by the Founder of a new faith, and by those who, either in his own days or in after ages, have followed him through the general range of his experience. The-religious experience of the Founder and his followers or apostles is the religious authority for those who accept ,-and not only accept, but also embrace-the fact of that -experience. It is the standard or authority of their lives in the religious sphere of the spirit. A passionate belief may long to extend the control of that authority into other spheres of the spirit, and may seek as the belief of the Middle Ages sought, to bring ·art and letters-truth and beauty-under its sway. It may even seek to carry the control into the material worlds of politics and economics; it may attempt to make States and Societies subordinate to the ultimate canon of religious experience and the authority of that experience. But that lies beyond our scope. We are concerned with the form of religious experience called Christian; and our inquiry is limited to its pure 5 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY op.eration in the religious sphere. What are the modes by which it exercises its authority in that sphere? We have assumed that the Christian eXperience has authority, and is authority, for all who accept and embrace the fact of such experience. But where does that experience reside to-d~y? What is its vehicle? What is the authentic voice, indubitable and final, which carries the essence of experience, and speaks in accents of cogent authority to the professing Christian? Is it the "Word of God"-? The Word, the Scripture, is a record of the primary and essential Christian experience set down by those who knew it at first hand. But can we say that Christian experience ceased, or that its authority became a full and final circle, with the closing of the canon of the Scripture? Even if we say that, and so postulate the finality· of the Scripture, we have to face the problem of its interpretation. Different and conflicting interpretations of its meaning exist-differences between commentator and commentator: differences between confession and confession. A conflict of interpretations involves a conflict of authorities. To solve the conflict by assigning :final authority to a particular interpreter (Luther or Calvin) is to enthrone the interpretation and to crown the gloss: it is to find an authority beyond the Word, and a sovereign behind the Scripture. To solve ·it by assigning :final authority to the particular interpretation of each individual believer is to surrender the unity and authenticity of Christian experience : it is to dissolve it into flying spray and shifting rainbows. This was the problem which vexed the Reformers of the Sixteenth Century: it·is a problem which must continue to trouble all who seek to vindicate single and supreme authority ·for the Wo"rd of God which is contained in the Scriptures. 6 SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND Is the residence and vehicle of religious authority a Church? A Church cherishes the record of the Christian experience: it cherishes its own interpretation of the record. It may claim a wider and deeper scope. It may _ claim that its ritual and organization-its sacraments 3.nd its methods ofgovernment-are a continuing and surviving part of the original Christian experience, proceeding from and instituted by the mind and act of the Founder. It may claim that the experience of its own collective historical life-the decisions of its councils: the pronouncements of its officers: the exaltations of its saints-are continuous with and inseparable from the original experience , which thus...