For a teacher of undergraduates whose copy of the original edition of Richard Gaillardetz's By What Authority? A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium, and the Sense of the Faithful is marked and battered by fifteen years of frequent use, the appearance of a “revised and expanded edition” is most welcome. Like its predecessor, this volume does an admirable job of presenting a basic understanding of the pillars of doctrinal authority in Roman Catholicism and, very importantly, the relationships among them. As the author explains, “A healthy Catholic view of authority will try to … demonstrate how these various kinds of authorities [scripture, tradition, church office, theologians, laity] interrelate and inform one another” (xi).

The expanded edition reorganizes some material, adds two new chapters, and includes important updates throughout. The result is four sections (two to four chapters each) covering power, authority, and revelation; scripture and tradition; the magisterium; and the believing community. Each chapter includes helpful subsection headings, a thoughtfully balanced exposition of its topic (typically with basic principles, relevant Vatican II teaching and its significance, and postconciliar developments), and a closing “Disputed Questions” section that frankly presents opposing viewpoints on specific issues. The new volume also has a somewhat more academic feel to it, including footnotes, somewhat expanded reading lists for each chapter, and a more detailed index. All these features are revised with reference to recent scholarship, documents, and events.

A great strength of the original edition was its careful attention to contemporary questions frequently raised inside and outside the church. The revision retains and expands this focus, including issues important since the first publication in 2003. Although the subtitle has changed, the book is still “a primer,” but the new subtitle (Foundations for Understanding Authority in the Church) also seems to acknowledge that many who are not “new learners” can still be as engaged by these contemporary questions as those raising them for the first time. It is also noteworthy, however, that in a variety of small ways—rewording of some key passages, provision of parenthetical explanations of basic ecclesiastical terms, and so on—Gaillardetz takes account of both a diversified audience and a general decrease in familiarity with Catholicism.

Also maintained and strengthened is the book's signature presentation of multiple viewpoints in the church's ongoing postconciliar debate about authority. While marking a coherent pathway through complex subject matter, Gaillardetz offers his readers context for arguments about which he himself seems unconvinced. Throughout the volume he conveys the sense that diverse opinions should be both expected and welcome in today's church. The underlying conviction seems to be that true authority in the church—that which holds it together firmly enough to make healthy internal debate possible—is stronger than human disagreement. In his new opening chapter, “The Role of Power and Authority in the Church,” Gaillardetz provides a sacramental and theological foundation: “In Catholicism, without ignoring the role of juridical power, we must recover that more comprehensive dimension of ecclesial power that comes from baptism and is animated by the Spirit” (6).

Particularly important within the new material is discussion of the influence of the last three pontificates on current understandings of church authority. Gaillardetz is able to take a longer (and, one suspects, somewhat freer) view of St. John Paul II's contributions as well as those of Benedict XVI. He considers the authority of the developing genre of “papal theology” and inquires into the “new form of papal teaching” that is the papal interview initiated by John Paul and much developed since. But Gaillardetz reserves particular attention for Pope Francis and the new ecclesiological perspectives he has encouraged, most significantly the ideas of a thoroughly synodal church and a more truly pastoral magisterium. The new material in these sections often reaches beyond synthesis to an enthusiastic expounding of Francis’ contributions, which do seem to go to the heart of Gaillardetz's own understanding of what authority is and should be in the church. Characteristically, though, he does not overplay his hand even in this regard, continuing to note a range of viewpoints and to chart pathways toward mutual understanding and appreciation of the church's essential unity in Christ, clearly the ultimate point of its structures of authority.