Authority
Authority names the legitimate right to teach, guide, preserve order, or administer responsibility within a community or relationship.
Binding spiritual authority belongs only to God as witnessed through the canon. No church, priest, tradition, council, denomination, teacher, theologian, or later text possesses inherent doctrinal authority beyond the canon itself. Human beings may teach, persuade, interpret, advise, or organize communities, but their conclusions remain open to question and correction.
Authority is therefore canonical rather than institutional, persuasive rather than coercive, and interpretive rather than infallible.
The canon stands above all later systems, traditions, and theological constructions. Any doctrine, practice, or command that contradicts the canon, or violates the commandments to love God and love neighbor, lacks binding authority regardless of historical or institutional status.
Human authority may still exist in practical matters of family, community, law, teaching, and organization, but no human authority is absolute.