Description

CONSECRATED OBEDIENCE REVISITED
Consecrated obedience must be studied from the points of view of both superior and subject. For, although obedience has usually been related to subjects, obedience has a twofold obligation, on the superior first, and then on the subject.
Although obedience has always been a core Christian virtue, it has undergone a great deal of redefinition since the Second Vatican Council. In a time when much attention is given to the abuse of power, especially among religious and the clergy, how are we to understand the gift and virtue of obedience today? What understanding of it is necessary for it to be liberating and humanizing rather than to be oppressive, manipulative, and destructive? This book answers such questions.

Contents

INTRODUCTION
PART ONE
CONSECRATED OBEDIENCE:
FROM SUPERIOR’S SIDE
Chapter 1
For Proper Understanding of evanglical authority
1. Nature of Evangelical Authority
1.1. Authority as Love
1.2. Authority as Service
1.3. Authority as Obedience to the Will of God
1.4. Authority as Leadership Superiorship and Leadership
Leadership and Administration
Evangelical Authority as Leadership
1.5. Authority as Instrument of Attaining True Happiness
1.6. Authority and Power
2. Superior’s Will and God’s Will
2.1. Superior’s Will as Always Formally God’s Will
2.2. Superior’s Will Need not Necessarily be
Materially God’s Will
3. Theology of Command
4. The Future of Authority in Consecrated Life
Chapter 2
FOR A PROPER EXERCISE OF EVANGELICAL AUTHORITY
1. Portrait of a Good Superior
2. Exercise of Authority in the Contemporary World
3. Preparing Superiors
4. Collaborative Reform
PART TWO
CONSECRATED OBEDIENCE: FROM SUBJECT’S SIDE
Chapter 3
FOR A PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE
1. Holiness as Doing God’s Will
2. Nature of Consecrated Obedience
3. Intellectual Obedience
Chapter 4
FOR A PROPER PRACTICE OF
EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE
1. Are We Always Bound to Obey Our Superiors?
2. Is Religious Disobedience Always a Sin?
3. Obedience in Practice
4. Responsible Disobedience
4.1. Responsible Disobedience and Individual Good
4.2. Responsible Disobedience and Social Good.
Responsible Disobedience and Salvation History
Responsible Disobedience and Canon Law
Responsible Disobedience and Traditional Theology
Responsible Disobedience and Contemporary Theology
Element in the Church
Responsible Disobedience as Obedience to the
Spirit of the Law
Responsible Disobedience as Obedience to the
Law of the Spirit
Responsible Disobedience as Expression of the
Primacy of Conscience
Responsible Disobedience and the Virtue of Epikeia
5. Obedience in My Life