But a Western reader expects the metaphors, or symbolic realities, to be — as in "The Faerie Queene," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and Goethe's "Faust" — organized by certain polarities, in a magnetic field shaped by a central supernatural authority.
Through an account of the Greek myth of Athena, Ruskin sought to suggest an enduring human need for and implicit recognition of the supernatural authority on which the moral stresses of his artistic, political, and cultural views depend.
The Theravada branch of Buddhism, which claims to adhere most closely to the teachings of the historical Buddha, does not rely upon supernatural authority or the word of the Buddha.
She was a liberal in the sense that she believed people should make their own decisions and repudiated all forms of supernatural authority, but this belief was balanced by a concept of authority and of duty to families and society.
The Oxford Movement — John Henry Newman's attempt, beginning in the eighteen-twenties, to restore quasi-Roman ritual and a sense of supernatural authority to the prosaic Church of England — had colored the elder Dodgson's life.
Mr Barroso, whose terms of office ends next month, said he had spent years in government before becoming EC president, had twice been elected as president by the elected members of the European Parliament and said the commission was created by member states not some "supernatural authority".
Such a commonwealth has no intrinsic supernatural or moral sanction: it derives its original authority from the people and can command loyalty only so long as it succeeds in keeping the peace.
From the fire-breathing beasts of North European myth and legend to the Book of Revelation's Great Red Dragon of Hell, from those supernatural agencies of imperial authority in ancient China to the so-called dragon-women who threaten male authority, dragons are a global phenomenon, one that has troubled humanity for thousands of years.
The Borders are also a ballad-world, where legend and the supernatural can wield greater authority than mere fact.
Unlike some Anglo-Catholics, however, he did not think it sufficient to confront the aggressive secularism of the time with a blunt affirmation of the church's supernatural life and apostolic authority.
