With the words, “authority and submission,” one enters a minefield of potential misstep, misunderstanding, and controversy. What’s more, it is a minefield with many entrances. You may have arrived via the subject of parenting. Or marriage. Or church governance. Or the church-state relationship.

Jonathan Leeman’s recent work gives a chapter to each of these arenas (and others), and so will be useful as a “one-stop shop” for those broadly interested in the subject. Better, it only enters those arenas after spending more than half the book defining relevant concepts and addressing necessary qualifications. As a result, various manifestations of authority and submission can be discussed side-by-side in a systematic and consistent way.

Authority is divided into four parts, and not until part 4 does Leeman begin to walk through individual authority-submission relationships. In part 1 (“What is Authority?”), Leeman defines authority as “the moral right or license to make decisions or give commands” (p. 27). He brings the concept of authority through the Creation-Fall-Redemption grid, observing the role of human authority in reflecting the image of God. In part 2 (“What is Submission?”), submission is said to involve two things: “deferring by moral constraint to another person’s judgment and deploying your resources for the sake of fulfilling that person’s judgment” (p. 65). Helpfully, Leeman distinguishes between “moral constraint” and “physical constraint.” In this part of the book, he also raises an important, and all too little considered, question. He writes, “I agree that leaders must be servants, but servants should be servants, too. So is there a difference between a servant leader and a ‘servant servant’?” (p. 49). Leeman believes so. True submission is the act of a free moral agent, acting out of an obligation one recognizes to be legitimate. With helpful examples he paints the picture of godly submission, be it child-to-parent or an individual church elder to the collective will of the elder body.

Leeman explains that there are three limits upon any call of submission to God-given authority: (1) when the authority requires us to sin, (2) when the authority drives outside of its God-given lanes, and (3) when it becomes necessary to protect oneself from wrongful harm (pp. 77–81). Part 3 (“How Does Good Authority Work?”) focuses on five attributes of good authority. Given the costly “ask” of submission, good authority has a tremendous burden placed upon it. It depends upon a humble, teachable spirit: “few things are more destructive than a fool in a high position of authority” (p. 114). Its priority must be to create life in those underneath it. Yet it also requires a godly backbone, able to enforce itself with discipline where appropriate and equally willing to bear the cost of mistakes and failures on behalf of those it leads. Finally, part 4 (“What Does Good Authority Look Like in Action?”) presents the ideal picture of godly authority in six arenas: the Husband, the Parent, the Government, the Manager, the Church, and the Elder.

Some of the pictures Leeman presents will be recognizable to those already familiar with his work. He has argued for his understanding of both government and church far more expansively in such works as Political Church: The Local Assembly as Embassy of Christ’s Rule, Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016); One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite and Multiservice Church Models, 9Marks (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020); as well as in several articles in Church Matters: A Journal for Pastors 15 (April 2023). But the format of this book presents the pictures he is painting in clear and digestible terms.

Those who tend to skip over a book’s introduction should reconsider in this case. Leeman describes the devastation that has come to the West as every institution has been taught to view all authority with suspicion—for example, children are now taught (often by other “authorities” in their lives!) to distrust the authority of the church, the Bible, the courts, the police, their parents, and even the authority of their own chromosomes! The only authority left is that of the individual Self. As Leeman explains: “Individualism doesn’t mean I like to be alone or I don’t have friends. It means, nobody can tell me what to do or who to be. No one has authority over me” (p. 3).

Leeman is gracious and transparent in approach. He acknowledges, for example, that egalitarians and advocates of an elder-rule polity will disagree with him on secondary theological matters (p. 151). But the soundness of his argumentation and the general readability of the book ensure that this will be a useful resource for Christians broadly.

Effective handling of such a sensitive subject requires the gifts of discernment and nuance. Leeman proves capable in these regards. He addresses the subject with gentleness and prudence, and yet he actually says something—no “death by a thousand qualifications” here. One example, perhaps most significant to the book overall, is his distinction between authority of command and authority of counsel. “Different kinds of authority,” he writes, “have different textures. One feels like cotton, another like silk, another like burlap. Plus, these different materials [have] different functions” (p. 151). Parent, government, manager, and church possess “authority of command,” which carries the right to enforce the command through discipline (p. 153). But the offices of Husband and Elder (according to his Congregational polity) possess an “authority of counsel” that, while possessing true authority and so “the right to bind the conscience” (p. 153), is not accompanied by a mechanism of enforcement. This means that the Bible’s granting of “the rod” to Parent or “the sword” to Government has no parallel in the husband’s authority over his wife. “The husband has no right to raise a hand, raise a voice, issue threats, or force his wife to do something against her will” (p. 154).

I expect Leeman’s work in this book will be susceptible to a certain amount of general criticism, as efforts to “thread a needle” often require statements and examples that are vulnerable to misunderstanding or mischaracterization. Many will disagree with him at points; others may think they disagree if they do not read carefully and charitably. I experienced this personally when I first read that “Christ never forces the church to obey and follow him” (p. 161). However, once I reread the section, I caught and agreed with his point. Others still may charge him with inconsistency. For instance, in his distinction between authority of counsel and authority of command, he places elders and husbands together in the first category, even as he also observes that elders—but not husbands—are told to “command” what they teach and “exhort and rebuke with all authority” (1 Tim. 4:11; 5:7; Titus 2:15). This will seem confusing unless Leeman is clearly heard to emphasize that both categories possess moral agency to bind the conscience (p. 153).

If read carefully, however, this work will greatly benefit all who read it, but especially pastors and elders as they seek to shepherd their members, each of whom is trying to live faithfully in multiple relationships of authority and submission.