174. Does it make sense to say that the distinction between...

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Does it make sense to say that the distinction between auctoritas causativa and auctoritas normativa either is or necessarily implies the distinction between executive (or executive-performative) authority and nonexecutive (i.e., epistemic and/or exemplary) authority?

It seems to me that a. causativa in the theological sense may very well be simply a special case of executive authority, even as a. normativa may be simply a special case of nonexecutive authority.

In any event, it seems clear that a religion as such functions both as an executive and as a nonexecutive authority -- both as direct witness, or proclamation, and as indirect witness, or teaching. Thus I have spoken of "both the executive and the nonexecutive authority specific to Christianity."

3 March 2002