The Authority of Integrity

Constantin Stanislavski wrote that a director should give the actors a good environment to act in, like good sound effects and set to help inspire their creativity or else the actors could be at the mercy of the audience.

A helpful director like that could have the authority of integrity. Integrity is the best authority of the four authorities; the next best are competence and personality, and the authority of position is least. My church pastor in Princeton explained to us that there are only four authorities. He was an MIT graduate industrial engineer at US Steel in Roebling, N.J. and he must have been referring to the great sociologist Max Weber, who also wrote about the Prussian Army iron cage we are in.

The authority of integrity is not seen too often. There are a few reasons for that. One is that there are not too many people with a lot of integrity. Jesus asked a man why he called him a good rabbi because, Jesus said, only God is good. People are not born good. But God enables some people to have good qualities. The second reason for the lack of the authority of integrity is that since the overwhelming majority of people are not good, they don’t respect the people with integrity.

In the good stage production, the director could have the authority of integrity; the designers and the sound people could have the authority of competence; the actors could have the authority of personality; and the audience could have the authority of position.

The director with the authority of integrity probably refers to the script a lot. Often, a screenplay is based on a book, like “The Lord of the Rings” was. Usually, people think the books are better than the movies, so, a good screenwriter will not stray too far from the book, either. I read “The Lord of the Rings” twice, so, I must have loved it. I saw the movies more times than that, so, I must have loved them. And their script was very faithful to the book. And author J.R.R. Tolkien’s story is actually based on World War I, by the way.

And that’s a good segue, because the Way is what I want to discuss next.

Jesus Christ said he is the Way and he had a lot of integrity when he followed the book (the Bible) and obeyed God the Father and sacrificed his life for his people. The Bible has prophecies about our Lord’s sacrifice and he perfectly fulfilled them. Good Friday is the name of the day he gave his life, for the second time, for his people. According to the Bible’s Hebrews 9:22, Jesus sacrificed his life for his people before he made his spectacle on the cross at the foundation of the world. He died for Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and king David because they needed him to pay for their sins before he was born of the virgin Mary.

Constantin Stanislavski, the actor, director, writer, and the greatest of acting teachers is an example of the authority of competence and commands a lot of respect. J.R.R. Tolkien was a popular author, professor, and friend of C.S. Lewis and Lewis’ inspiration for his Ransom character of his popular space trilogy, and is an example of the authority of personality and is adored by people all over the world. And Jesus Christ was a great teacher, leader, healer, and the Son of God and is an example of the authority of integrity so needed in our world today. We shouldn’t ignore him, also.

Happy Good Friday and Easter Sunday