Lewis says that a significant part of the question of war has to do with the question of authority. He asks how one could arrive at the conclusion that “I must disobey if I am called on by lawful authority to be a soldier.” He summarizes the various forms of authority as “special or general” and “either human or divine.”
Special human authority is the “society to which I belong,” says Lewis. Here, Lewis cites his English heritage of Arther, Alfred, Burke, Shakespeare, and everything in between. General human authority would include the the broader scope of human history including the likes of Homer, Virgil, Plato, Cicero, and the Bhagavad-Gita. Thus far human authority.
Lewis cites Hooker who said that there were basically two reasons for disregarding human authority. The first was the blind optimist who as a matter of course simply believes that the latest is the wisest. Time is progressive de facto, and so there is nothing improbable for this fellow that the “whole world was wrong until the day before yesterday and now has suddenly become right.” But the second avenue of discounting authority is found in a Christian accounting of history which recognizes the reality of sin and the fall, such that the human race can and does err and therefore unanimity amongst the human race does not guarantee veracity.
Thus Lewis turns to “Divine Authority.”
(Timeless at Heart, 58-60)
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