Truth and Authority

As our return to Europe looms onto the horizon our thoughts are increasingly drawn towards how our experiences here will impact on our future life. I spend a lot of time thinking about the differences between here and back home.

One very big cultural difference here is the way in which people relate to Authority. This difference isn’t immediately visible, it takes time to see. But once seen it is very clear, people here respect authority, of whatever kind, far more than we do in Europe.

In Europe we have seen a gradual slipping away of trust for authority, be that authority political, religious, academic, scientific or generational. Perhaps it is the consequence of experiencing so many people in authority using that authority so badly. Once burnt twice cautious! Blind respect for authority has given us the Somme, the Inquisitions, the Gas chambers, the atomic bomb, sectarian conflicts and great inequalities. Hence we understandably deny our leaders the right to decide for us what is good and what is bad, we do not listen unquestioningly to presidents, popes and professors.

Our suspicion of authority goes further than a distrust in specific people. We are now suspect of the whole concept of truth. We no longer believe that any person or group can possess truth; the truth always lies ahead of us yet to be discovered. Science can no longer speak or truth only the best theory yet discovered, politicians can no longer claim a grand ideological plan and religious leaders can no longer credibly proclaim absolute dogmas. We no longer trust anything or anyone easily. This lack of trust inevitably spills over into our close relationships and friendships, we form them much less readily than do people in other parts of the world. 

By contrast here in the Philippines (I am of course speaking generally) there is a strong trust in both Authority and in Truth. People here find it very easy to trust, teachers are valued, the elderly are venerated and political leaders and given (often undeserved) respect.

The area where trust in authority is most visible is the Church. In every parish thousands attend Mass and long lines of people queue to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. The traditional rituals and beliefs of the Church are trusted and respected. People here do not see truth as something beyond our horizon waiting to be discovered in the future, rather truth is something present here and now, very much possessed by the Catholic Church.

Bishops and priests are given enormous respect, authority and trust; they are treated as spiritually superior to the laity. The model of priesthood lived out here is a very paternalistic one, the priest is not so much seen as a fellow struggler but as a spiritual father whose role is to lead the simple faithful.

In the Europe this paternalistic model of Church, where it still exists, is an outdated anachronism. A people to whom trust does not come easily cannot relate to this form of spiritual leadership, we balk at its suffocating certainty. Perhaps much of the non-participation of European Christians in their local parishes is due to leaders failing to adapt to these changing realities. In Europe spiritual leadership has to be more humble, our priests must be equals not masters, fellow strugglers also searching for a way to follow God. To claim any kind of higher or privileged status is to risk becoming irrelevant and appearing arrogant. A culture which finds trust difficult yearns for leaders who also struggle.

Perhaps our European approach to truth is the central difference between us and the rest of the world, not just the Philippines. Maybe it is this philosophical difference which is fuelling much of the discord which rumbles on visibly in the Anglican Communion and less visibly in the Catholic Church. We Europeans cannot sit comfortably in a Church filled with certainty and absolutes, the very absolutes in which so many non-Europeans believe so dearly.