post-canonical

On the Catholic understanding, the teaching authority of the post-canonical Church is thus, from Dei Verbum §10:

Archive 2007-10-01 Mike L 2007

To state that the post-canonical church has this same authority is always to subvert the authority of the canonical witnesses to contemporary subjective human opinion.

Archive 2007-10-01 Mike L 2007

So the question that needs addressing is this: why should we believe that the post-canonical Church exercises the same degree of authority in interpreting the canon of Scripture that the pre-canonical Church exercised in forming the canon of Scripture?

Archive 2007-10-01 Mike L 2007

The teaching authority of the post-canonical Church is only over the interpretation of what is already established as apostolic and as binding precisely in virtue of being apostolic.

Archive 2007-10-01 Mike L 2007

The Catholic Church, and defenders of hers such as Newman, do not for a moment deny that the post-canonical Church is “subordinate” to the apostolic tradition maintained by the pre-canonical Church and applied for the purpose of forming the canon.

Archive 2007-10-01 Mike L 2007

But for now, I shall offer a more focused answer: we should believe that the post-canonical Church has the same degree of teaching authority as the pre-canonical Church because, absent such authority, it is impossible to transmit the deposit of faith as an object of faith, as distinct from human opinion.

PMS II: Siris on Carson-and-me-vs-Witt Mike L 2007

So, while there is a sense in which “the authority of the pre-canonical Church was the authority of the Apostles,” that is not so in a sense that would make its authority greater than that of the post-canonical Church.

Archive 2007-10-01 Mike L 2007

That is the hermeneutical advantage of viewing the post-canonical Church as having the same degree of teaching authority as the pre-canonical Church.

Archive 2007-10-01 Mike L 2007

That is the hermeneutical advantage of viewing the post-canonical Church as having the same degree of teaching authority as the pre-canonical Church.

PMS II: Siris on Carson-and-me-vs-Witt Mike L 2007

So the question that needs addressing is this: why should we believe that the post-canonical Church exercises the same degree of authority in interpreting the canon of Scripture that the pre-canonical Church exercised in forming the canon of Scripture?

PMS II: Siris on Carson-and-me-vs-Witt Mike L 2007