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What I have failed sufficiently to appreciate, however, is that this apostolic word is the primary authority not only because or insofar as it has an auctoritas normativa but also because or insofar as it has an auctoritas causativa. Indeed, the orthodox notion of the apostolic word as fundamentum fidei organicum seu minsterialeministeriale really has to do with this word more as auctoritas causativa than as auctoritas normativa (although one would never know this from my discussion of the concept in my essay on Marxsen!). The apostolic word is, above all, the authorized word through which faith is born or reborn as from a seed and thus is "the means of generating faith and bringing about blessedness."

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