religious authority
Faith's governing voice
Religious authority is the power to define doctrine, interpret sacred texts, and guide believers in matters of faith and practice.
This authority may rest in institutions (the Catholic Church), texts (scripture), traditions, or individuals (priests, rabbis, imams, gurus).
The imam spoke with religious authority on matters of Islamic law.
Questions of religious authority—who has it, where it comes from, how far it extends—underlie most theological disputes and schisms.
- popeCatholic Church's supreme leader
- papal infallibilityPontiff's error-free teaching authority
- imamMuslim religious guide
- churchPlace of Christian worship
- fatwaIslamic legal pronouncement
Bible · dogma · canon law · mufti · bishop · Quran · sacred text · ayatollah · theology · church fathers · orthodoxy · hierarch · divine right · doctrine · council · Sutras · guru · rabbi
- religionChristianity, Islam, beliefs, Judaism, Hinduism
- church-statechurch-state, separation, church-state separation, establishment clause, state religion
- Saudi ArabiaRiyadh, Mecca, Makkah, Medina, Madinah
- Shia IslamAli, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Hussein, Hussain, imam
- Arabian HistoryRiyadh, Mecca, Medina, unification, Wahhabism
- Islamic TheocracySupreme Leader, Khomeini, Khamenei, ayatollah
religious authoritysecular authority
Governmental power without religious basis
civil authority · state authority · political authority · secular state · constitutional authority
religious authorityscientific consensus
Prevailing expert judgment
rationalism · skepticism · freethought · empiricism · naturalism
religious authorityindividual autonomy
Power over own choices
freedom of conscience · self-determination · secularism · freethinking · anticlericalism