In 1954, a political philosopher named Hannah Arendt took on the question of whether any political authority exists in the modern age. She concluded that political authority no longer exists because of the loss of tradition and secularization (Hannah Arendt, Between Past and Future 91 (2006) (“What was authority?”)). Arendt had a particular definition of authority in mind: the kind of authority that is above human beings; the kind of authority that possesses inherent and transcendent obedience; and the kind of authority that does not demand obedience through means of power and coercion (Id. at 92). In other words, Arendt’s definition of legitimate authority “implies an obedience in which men retain their freedom” (Id. at 105). The basis for this kind of authority, she argued, comes from submission to a higher ontological reality (i.e., “religion”), from the reception of external commands (i.e., “authority”), and from the preservation of both (i.e., “tradition”). Arendt called this foundation of political authority the “Roman Trinity” (Id. at 140).

Arendt distinguished between authoritarian and totalitarian forms of government to illustrate the difference between legitimate and illegitimate political authority. “The difference between tyranny and authoritarian government,” she wrote, “has always been that the tyrant rules in accordance with his own will and interest, whereas even the most draconian authoritarian government is bound by laws.” Thus, legitimate political authority possesses a Government over its government, a Law over its law, that superimposes duties and accountabilities to those in authoritative positions. In Arendt’s words: “Its acts are tested by a code which was made either not by man at all, as in the case of the law of nature or God’s Commandments or the Platonic ideas, or at least not by those actually in power. . . . The source of authority in authoritarian government is always a force external and superior to its own power; it is always this source, this external force which transcends the political realm, from which the authorities derive their ‘authority,’ that is, their legitimacy, and against which their power can be checked” (Id. at 97). Here, Arendt did not stress the need for an ontological authority, but rather the need for an authority, whether above, before, or beyond those in power.

Moreover, Arendt emphasized religion as the “external and superior” source of authority. It is in religion, and only religion, that the loci of higher ontology can be found; and the quest for a legitimate authority is a quest for finding the right kind of Being (Id. at 109). For example, when the patient becomes ill, she submits herself to the authority of the physician; when the car breaks down, the driver calls the mechanic; when the society needs a rule of law, who is the society to call? Even Plato admitted the need for an ontological authority to legitimately tell human beings what to do. As Arendt noted, “Plato himself ironically concludes that no man, only a god, could relate to human beings as the shepherd relates to his sheep” (Id.).[1] Arendt concluded that the secularization of the West and the abandonment of the Roman Trinity is what extinguished legitimate political authority.[2]

Mistakenly, however, Arendt thought the “fear of hell” played a significant role in the legitimating power or effect of religion on political authority (Id. at 130). In saying that, Arendt makes religion out to be another form of coercion, making it indistinguishable from totalitarianism (which is, of course, materialist and atheist). But religion, that is, true religion, brings about obedience through the compelling power of right relationship with the right Being––namely, the one, true, and living God.

The God of the Bible became a human being and modeled, in agreement with Arendt, how to achieve legitimate political authority: through submission to a higher command beyond the self. Incredibly, the Son of God said: “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of [H]im who sent me.” (John 5:30). Even Jesus Christ sought a will higher than himself.

Do we really think we are better than Him?

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[1] See also id. at 131 (“Plato coined the word ‘theology,’ and couldn’t help but reference some type of theology in his writings about political authority.”).

[2] In her words, “the famous ‘decline of the West’ consists primarily in the decline of the Roman trinity of religion, tradition, and authority” (Id. at 140).