WHO'S AFRAID OF HIERARCHY?
Nichols, Terence L.
WHO'S AFRAID OF HIERARCHY? The people o f God have to be organized. Here's how. Terence L. N ichols or many today, "hierarchy" connotes oppressive ...
...A hierarchy of expertise and competence is rec- based on force, but by an authority based on expertise, comognized in most human activities...
...The the four holy councils,...dealt with heresies and cur- charism of the papacy, then, is to facilitate consensus among rent problems by debate in common, since it was es- the bishops and to proclaim that consensus...
...One way to do this is through the election of bishSimilarly, Vatican II was a good, though not perfect, ex- ops...
...11 Commonweal 18 April 7, 2000...
...MoreA tem...
...also consulted widely with non-Catholic observers and the- For the Spirit to be heard in its fullness, the people, the theological experts (periti), many of whom were also active in ological community, the clergy and religious orders, and drafting council documents...
...conduct a class, but allow the opinions of the most ignorant Anthropologists, of course, have written extensively on to count the same as those of the learned, would destroy how hierarchical social systems work...
...The recent controversy concerning John (that is, hierarchical authority) of God and Christ, and virCornwell's Hitler's Pope (see Commonweal, November 5,1999) tually all evince some kind of hierarchical ecclesial struchas again focused attention on the problem of hierarchy and ture...
...But trict ...and the universal church, that is, the pope as head of equally, no one, not the emperor nor the bishop of Rome, the college of bishops...
...It is a mistake to identify all hitures can be justified...
...petence, and (in the widest sense of the term) "virtue...
...The decision is portrayed as being made after exten- to express itself within the framework of the given commusive discussion among the members, including the Apostles nity, but also to operate for its benefit...
...and elders...
...The human heart, for This model of participatory hierarchy is consistent with example, will survive and beat erratically outside the body the kind of authority found in the Jesus movement, with that in vitro, but within the body its beating is regulated by the practiced in the early church, the religious orders, with the onlarger system...
...However, my hierarchical model is drawn from the natural sciences...
...To reduce C against them (consensus will never be 100 per- the church to an egalitarian congregationalist model would cent, though that is the ideal...
...bishops...
...faith...
...The same is true for molecules and atoms, which, sider the proclamation of the kingdom of God to be at the within a larger system, obey their characteristic laws but core of Jesus' message...
...the bishops rejected the initial ticipatory hierarchy is that the Spirit is given to the whole documents drafted by the curia and drafted their own...
...But makes this point in Ut unum sint: "When the Catholic church Acts 15 can be seen as representing a kind of narrative char- affirms that the office of the bishop of Rome corresponds to ter, an inspired model, for decision making in the church...
...There is an alternaciety they tend toward tyranny...
...In naTerence L. Nichols is associate professor of theology at the Univer- ture, any complex system is not homogeneous...
...Excessive comCommonweal 1 7 April 7, 2000 to decide whether to require Gentile converts to be circum- opposition that emerges from the soil of solidarity not only cised...
...Most important, the autonomy of subsidiary systems would be preserved, though there would be some regulation of the subsidiary units due to their participation in a larger whole (this is similar to the Catholic principle of subsidiarity...
...But the aim of rthur Koestler has proposed the term "holon" his preaching was not to bring about God's domination, but for a system which is a whole with respect to to draw all into participation in the greater whole of God's its subsystems, but is itself a part of a larger sys- kingdom-in a word, into a participatory hierarchy...
...For participatory hierarchy to be efcould impose a decision on the whole church...
...What would such a model of ecclesial hierarchy look like...
...This is certainly an idealized account...
...Thus the matter is complex...
...Because the message A complex system made up of subsystems is known in was meant for the whole people of Israel, Jesus particularly science as a hierarchy of complexity...
...The aim of the bishops was not to impose the is a member of the 'college,' and the bishops are his brothers will of a majority faction on a minority, but to reach a con- in the ministry...
...This means be made clear: that the pope's decisions ought to be made in communion The holy fathers, who have gathered at intervals in with his brother bishops and not over against them...
...In emergency situations, where survival chy is not the question...
...The final decision, delivered by James (not Peter) What is the role of the papacy in a participatory hierarchy...
...Every- egalitarian message...
...This is reflected in the sense of the faithful (both laity and clergy), to balance the dictum of Pope Leo the Great [d...
...He is the author of composed of subsystems, which are themselves composed That All May Be One: Hierarchy and Participation in the Church of subsystems, which are in turn composed of subsystems, (Liturgical Press...
...tive hierarchical model, one based on participation, inclusion, On the other hand, any sizable society needs some kind of integration, and subsidiarity, in which members are emhierarchical structure if it is to function as a unified whole...
...the magisterium must each have a voice in governing the church...
...The Sec- Rahner and others in interpreting Vatican II to mean that ond Council of Constantinople went so far as to affirm that there is only one supreme subject of authority: the college it was only through debate in common that the truth could of bishops conjoined with the bishop of Rome...
...Walter Kasper the heirs in authority to the Apostles and as the representa- has proposed that bishops be appointed by a "joint act of tives of their respective communities, were recognized as the relevant local church, the fellow bishops in the dispossessing the authority to make normative decisions...
...Without some form of recto oppose a "democratic" church, based on equality and par- ognized leadership and authority, social units are incapable ticipation...
...Vatican II, however, situates the pope's authorSpirit (Acts 15:28...
...This is especially true of episcopal churches (Orthodox, authoritarianism in the Catholic church...
...As in a holarchy, there will be multiple subsidiary holons, each regulated by an appropriate body of persons (for example, national regions served by a body of bishops, a diocese served by a bishop, a parish served by a priest...
...Both command hierarchy and egalitarianism would deform this model of hierarchy...
...But as a long-term prescription for so- erarchy with authoritarian command...
...Kingdom" here means the rule or are partially regulated by the encompassing system...
...Nonetheless, his conception of the there is dual causality...
...Sanders, and John Meier conbody...
...of their communities, and therefore that the local clergy and The process was hierarchical, not egalitarian...
...It is of course analogous: one cannot directly apply which leadership was to be exercised: as service, whose aim a model based on natural systems to ecclesial hierarchy...
...Eimunities of a given society must be such as to allow the ther deforms the catholicity of the church...
...Vatican II insists that the church is a hipatriarchal and authoritarian...
...mission entrusted to the whole body of bishops, who are This pattern continued in the early ecumenical councils, es- also 'vicars and ambassadors of Christ.' The bishop of Rome pecially Nicaea...
...It can and spiritual authority (he was addressed as teacher...
...Egalitarians are right in stressing the Fiorenza (A Discipleship of Equals) and John Dominic Crossan basic equality of persons before God and the law...
...Indeed, some New Testament scholars, such as of concerted action...
...there would be no means of integrating these into any larger whole...
...Here I agree with Cardinal muffle the voice of the Spirit as it speaks through anointed Wojtyla (now Pope John Paul II), who wrote in The Acting bishops...
...They church, not just to the pope or to the bishops and the pope...
...The bishops, as laity have a central voice in their election...
...rather it is sity of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota...
...Scholgrow and reproduce, but within an organ or body its activ- ars as varied as Rudolf Bultmann, Joachim Jeremias, Nority and direction of growth are regulated by the organ or man Perrin, Ben Meyer, E.P...
...Koestler argues draw them into the closeness with the Father that he himthat the principle of the holon applies to virtually all natur- self experienced...
...Egalitarianism would reduce the holarchy to its simplest elements-perhaps individual parishes or even individual persons...
...the will of Christ, she does not separate this office from the Here is leadership, but also extensive participation...
...asunder by the problem of authority and hierarchy...
...Either Each higher system organizes and regulates lower systems, egalitarianism or command hierarchy would vitiate the balwithout interfering with their principles of operation...
...To the teacher, the expert, and the saint...
...His be represented as a circle which encloses smaller circles, aim, however, was not command over his followers, but to each of which encloses smaller circles, etc...
...It is egalitarian, but rather a participatory hierarchy...
...etc...
...be applied to governments, corporations, fire and police A "hierarchical" church, based on centralized control, is said units, universities, and churches...
...Nor could an orchestra F Reuther, Elisabeth Schiissler Fiorenza, Riane successfully perform if at least one person did not have the Eisler, and others explicitly or implicitly equate hierarchy authority to unify the participants...
...But is to foster participation, not domination...
...Such arrangements, which erarchically structured society (Lumen gentium, chapter 3), might be called command hierarchies, are based on force and and in this it follows two thousand years of tradition...
...tems thus have their own autonomy...
...reign of God over a renewed Israel...
...This Conversely, a consistent egalitarianism, that is, the denial is the authority of the craftsperson, the guide, the doctor, of all hierarchical roles, is not workable in large groups...
...kingdom certainly involved submission to God's will and rule-he addressed God as "Abba," "Father...
...carried the consensus of the whole community (Acts 15:22), Vatican I seems to give the pope absolute jurisdiction over and that consensus was seen as representing the will of the the church...
...Similarly, a cell can survive in vitro, and even tological hierarchy of the church, and with Vatican II...
...In such a system, the parts sought out the lost, the sinners, and the marginalized...
...I follow Karl sensus which would indicate the will of the Spirit...
...This I call participatory hierarchy...
...pope...
...The truth cannot be made clear in on women's ordination...
...ity within that of the episcopal college...
...His admonition to the Twelve, that thing in nature seems to be some sort of holon...
...2:12...
...Certainly it was hierar- Papacy, Crossroad), this was the norm in the church until chical-the bishops were teaching concerning matters of the the early 1800s...
...Though the nature of the relation between core of leaders, and his promise to them was that they would the whole and its parts will vary from case to case, the prin- rule over the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:30), hardly an ciple of the holon seems to be virtually ubiquitous...
...In other words, sociating with outcasts...
...powered by participation in a greater whole and influence In a family, a high school or college class, a university, a flows both from the leader to the members and from the team, an orchestra, a corporation, or a church, the alternative members to the leaders...
...Thus (subsystems) affect the whole, but the whole also regulates he flouted the social hierarchies of his time by eating and asand constrains the operations of the parts...
...the light of truth drives out the them, as seems to have been the case in the recent decision shadow of lying...
...Lower sys- anced, integrated diversity which we find in holarchy...
...Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of I think this model of hierarchy or holarchy, which is a hi- all" (Mark 9:35), which some interpret as evidence of an erarchy of inclusion and participation, is appropriate for the egalitarian community, I think, indicates the manner in church...
...It to hierarchy would seem to be disintegration and paraly- recognizes a fundamental equality of persons but a hierarchy sis...
...461]: "Let whoever is to "authority from above" represented by the pope and the be set over all be elected by all...
...al systems: organisms, ecosystems, languages, societies, in- Within his movement he appointed the Twelve as an inner stitutions, etc...
...They err, (The Historical Jesus) have argued that the original Jesus move- however, in excluding the possibility of hierarchical roles ment was radically egalitarian, and this utopian society was within a society or a church...
...The It is important that dissenting voices be heard, model of inclusive hierarchy sketched above may capture even though the resulting decision may go what is legitimate in both sides of this conflict...
...The same principles could with authoritarianism, domination, patriarchy, and rigidity...
...Families without parents or classrooms without teachers of roles and office...
...consultation fective, there must be some way for the sensus fidelium, the and participation were imperative...
...there is precedent: Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthi- A later and perhaps the best example of this pattern can be ans, also uses the body as an analogy for the church, and to seen in Acts 15, when the nascent Christian community had similar purpose...
...true to a lesser degree of evangelical and independent ProtesIt is, however, true that many hierarchical structures are tant groups as well...
...its leaders govern not by an authority don't work...
...Here I will argue Roman Catholic, Anglican, some Lutherans), which have that hierarchy and participation are not antithetical but com- traditionally justified hierarchy from the authority of the plementary, and that the Christian church is meant to be not apostolic college, itself rooted in the authority of Christ...
...found in animal societies (the "pecking order") as well as In short, whether or not the church should be a hierarhuman societies...
...Such a system of systems of systems (that over, within his own movement Jesus exercised both moral is, a hierarchy of complexity) Koestler calls a holarchy...
...Thus the human body is composed of organs and tisCommonweal 16 April 7, 2000 sues, which are composed of cells, which are composed of mand, on the other hand, would stifle the legitimate autoncellular organelles and macromolecules, which are com- omy of the subsidiary wholes, destroy any influence of the posed of smaller molecules, which are composed of atoms...
...Authors such as Leonar- dren an equal vote on every issue would probably destroy do Boff, Sallie McFague, Rosemary Radford the children and the family itself...
...According to Archbishop John Quinn (The Reform of the ample of participatory hierarchy...
...But unlike some councils, Vatican II was not controlled The crucial theological principle guiding the idea of parby the popes or the curia...
...any other way when there are debates about questions A hierarchy based on participation and the search for conof faith, since everyone requires the assistance of his sensus will not work if all the bishops are appointed by the neighbor...
...Rather, we should ask, What kind of demands swift decisions, such exclusively top-down struc- hierarchy should there be...
...Terence L. N ichols or many today, "hierarchy" connotes oppressive teaching and learning...
...supplanted by a hierarchical church which deformed its In fact all Christian denominations confess the Lordship founder's intentions...
...There would 1 be allowance for influence both from the whole to the parts and from the parts to the whole...
...to reduce it to a papal or episcopal command hierPerson: "More precisely, in order for opposition to be con- archy is to stifle the Spirit as it speaks through the people, the structive, the structure, and beyond it the system of com- clergy and religious, and the community of theologians...
...John Paul II also there remained a procircumcision faction (Gal...
...The papacy tablished as certain that when the disputed question is should not dominate the bishops or impose decisions on set out by each side...
...To govern a family by allowing chilsocial or ecclesial control...
...At present, the Roman Catholic church is being torn an participatory hierarchy incorporate dissent...
...parts on the whole, and reduce the church to a tyranny...
...It requires that the bishops truly be representatives In this way the normative Christian creeds were established...
Vol. 127 • April 2000 • No. 7
