ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the themes of epistemic hubris, the concept of authority, privileged knowledge, the importance of gossip, and the bishop as the sovereign exception. It establishes groundwork in the areas of authority and sovereignty, gossip and discourse, identifying the epistemological centrality of the bishop as guardian of the tradition. Stephen Platten laments that the concept of authority has not been addressed in a critical manner in Anglicanism, In the past, attitudes to authority have often been too facile. In this book, however, epistemic hubris is used heuristically to describe the contemporary ecclesial problem of sovereign power and its close relationship to knowledge. Considering gossip as discourse means recognizing that gossip has the capacity to communicate knowledge. The use of the concept of gossip indicates something about the complex nature of discourses and marginalized knowledges. Ecclesial authority can be construed in relation to the idea of foundation as starting point, which is sustained by tradition, embodying discursive and non-discursive practices.
