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.
Communities may nevertheless exercise limited authority through a freely accepted rule. Such authority derives not from domination or irrevocable hierarchy, but from voluntary participation in a shared pattern of life. Membership depends upon willingness to live under the rule of the community, and departure remains possible. The rule binds by commitment rather than coercion.
Human authority may still exist in practical matters of family, community, law, teaching, and organization, but no human authority is absolute.