Abstract
This chapter examines issues concerning the teaching authority of the Catholic Church's clerical hierarchy, the magisterium. It first considers the issue of assent vs. dissent in church teaching before turning to a discussion of the differing types of church teaching and the authority they carry. It then turns its attention to other alternative strategies, suggestions, and resources for understanding and exercising magisterium in these times. It also explores how “authentic” (that is, authoritative) church teaching in our times might be best identified, perceived, and received and how the faithful, particularly theologians, understand and relate to church teaching authority. The chapter concludes by arguing that the church is in dire need of a more existentially oriented and humble (both in existential and epistemological terms) account of what the quest for Christian truth entails, complemented by an understanding and exercise of magisterium.
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