MAARTEN WISSE a1 a1 Department of Philosophy of Religion, Utrecht University, PO Box 80105, 3508 TC
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Abstract
What does it mean to say that the Bible has authority? The author
introduces and develops J. M. Bochenski's philosophical theory about the nature of
authority. On this basis, he distinguishes between different kinds of authority, which
he applies to the authority of the Bible. Subsequently, he shows that the theory of
Bochenski should be improved by reworking it from the perspective of speech-act
theory. This leads to the presentation of an overall theory of authority that matches
authority in general as well as the authority of the Bible.
