In this pivotal book, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski offers an essential treatise on the question of obedience in the Church—whence it derives and how it is to be properly and prudently understood and lived. He explores St. Thomas Aquinas’s guidelines on the subject, what type of obedience is necessary for salvation, and which types are lawful and unlawful. Can there be situations where the usual structures of obedience become impediments to, rather than facilitators of, the Church’s mission and the good of souls? Have there been instances in Church history where faithful priests have exercised their ministry in violation of ordinary canonical norms? How should the clergy respond if the traditional Latin Mass is forbidden to them or if it were to be declared “abrogated”? What is the proper role of conscience and how are liberal and conservative views of it defective?
About the Author
Peter Kwasniewski holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America. After teaching at the International Theological Institute in Austria, he joined the founding team of Wyoming Catholic College, where he taught theology, philosophy, music, and art history, and directed the choir and schola until 2018. He is now a full-time author and speaker whose work is seen regularly at websites and in periodicals such as New Liturgical Movement, OnePeterFive, Rorate Caeli, The Remnant, Catholic Family News, Latin Mass Magazine, and The Traditionalist. Dr. Kwasniewski has authored or edited many books, most recently a work from Arouca Press called The Road from Hyperpapalism to Catholicism: Rethinking the Papacy in a Time of Ecclesial Disintegration. His work has been translated into at least eighteen languages. To arrange a media appearance, click here.