A very topical contribution to the question of whether authority is needed and what it is good for. His account is in no way naive. Indeed, his reflections on how 'we live with fallible authority' which would always be in season, are particularly timely just now. --National Review Our postmodern era views authority as something to be grimly endured -- or simply overthrown. Victor Austin writes against this antinomian sensibility. His clear, accessible and convincing analysis shows how moral, political, and religious authority brings order to society and beauty to the soul. --R. R. Reno, Department of Theology, Creighton University Father Austin's style is energetic and engaging, his thought enriched by decades as priest, teacher, and theologian, and his thesis compels attention: social beings require authority to flourish, and we are social beings from the beginning of this life to beyond its end. We need not accept all of his premises to benefit from this wide-ranging essay, fortunately so, since the author at times plays the smiling contrarian who invites us all to revisit our assumptions. For readers who have taken social order as rooted in either persuasion or compulsion, and so assumed that authority is derivative, transient, postlapsarian, the dead hand of the past, or the polite mask of force, this book offers a clear-headed alternative. Austin explores the ineliminable centrality of fallible authority in our social, epistemic, political, and ecclesial communal lives, and discerns structures of authority in the Trinity and the paradisal life of friends living together. In part Christian theology, in part humane anthropology, in part philosophical reflection, this is altogether a galvanizing book. --Ronald Mawby, Whitney Young School of Honors and Liberal Studies, Kentucky State University Austin displays an impressive range of learning. ... The result is a rich, extended essay that wholly eschews utopianism and instead offers a sustained meditation upon concrete communal existence. --The Living Church Our postmodern era views authority as something to be grimly endured -- or simply overthrown. Victor Austin writes against this antinomian sensibility. His clear, accessible and convincing analysis shows how moral, political, and religious authority brings order to society and beauty to the soul. --R. R. Reno, Department of Theology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA. !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Interview with the author in the Mars Hill Audio Journal, Vol. 107 The Reverend Victor Lee Austin, Ph.D., is Theologian-in-residence at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. He is the author of scholarly articles in political theology, ecclesiology, and social ethics, as well as two volumes of theological reflections on everyday life: "A Priest's Journal," and more recently, "Priest in New York: Church, Street, and Theology."