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3 - Obedience and Responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

By
William J. Wainwright
Edited by
Paul Moser  and
Michael McFall
Paul Moser
Affiliation:
Loyola University, Chicago
Michael McFall
Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University, Ohio
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Summary

Obedience is no longer a fashionable virtue. In The Book on Adler, Soren Kierkegaard observed that “the misfortune of our age – in the political as well as in the religious sphere, and in all things – is disobedience, unwillingness to obey.” Its cause is not “doubt…but insubordination,” which can assume two forms: “wishing to cast down the ruler [or authority] or wishing to be the ruler [or authority].” “The question is” really “quite simple,” however: “Will you obey? Or will you not obey? Will you bow in faith before divine authority? Or will you be offended?” What Kierkegaard found to be true in the middle of the nineteenth century remains true today.

This chapter argues that obedience is a central feature of the Christian life that is integrally connected with other Christian virtues such as faith, charity, and the imitation of Christ.

DIVINE MAJESTY AND HUMAN OBEDIENCE

Ralph Cudworth thought that God’s command cannot itself be the source of our obligation to obey him because it is “ridiculous and absurd” to suppose that “any one should make a positive law to require that others should be obliged, or bound to obey him. . . for if they were obliged before, then this law would be in vain and to no purpose: and if they were not before obliged, then they could not be obliged by any positive law, because they were not previously bound to obey such a person’s commands.” If I already have an obligation to obey Michael’s commands, for instance, it is pointless for him to command me to obey him. If I do not, then themere fact thatMichael tells me to do something places me under no obligation to do it.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Wisdom of the Christian Faith , pp. 58 - 76
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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