Developing life-giving authority

AUTHORITY:
How Godly Rule Protects the
Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities,
and Promotes Human Flourishing.
By Jonathan Leeman
Crossway. 304 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 1 433 587 634

We live in a culture that is deeply suspicious of authority. Scandals in all our major public institutions have, for many, served to reinforce a profound post-enlightenment suspicion of anyone wielding power.

You see it everywhere: the stories we tell (every hero is the one who resists the powers that be); the prevailing attitudes to parenting, politics, and pastoral ministry (to name a few); the paralysis that many leaders feel when needing to act, for fear of being accused of abuse.