Authority in a Flat World

Thanks in part to the Internet, we now live in a flat world. In other words, we live in a time and place where everybody has, in many ways, an equal voice. For example, people value the opinions of other readers over critics on Amazon, and, if you know what you're doing, anybody can develop a blog or website that can be easily found and appear as authoritative (for example, if you Google "grandpa's eulogy", my blog is the 5th entry you find).

But it's not just in the realm of the Internet where things are getting flat, the same thing is happening in the world of publishing. Be it online services where you upload and they print, or groups like Lifevest Publishing who did the elemental life, anybody can now, for the right price, publish anything and have it appear and equally authoritative to any other book.

So, the question becomes, how do we know which of these voices we should listen to? Which are actually authoritative?

In my case, I tried to do two things when writing the elemental life. First, my goal wasn't to share my own thoughts, feelings, or ideas, rather, I wanted to communicate the Bible in a way that was accessible to people and gave them an opportunity to view it from a different angle.

Second, the work was done in community. With my direct work, it was done in community with the people who gather in our home each Monday. We'd read what I'd written, talk about it, ask questions, and challenge the thoughts expressed. This played an incredible role in the formation of the book. But I also worked with another community of people indirectly, namely theologians from throughout history who have studied the same Bible and sought to communicate what it is saying to others.

What other steps can be taken to help firm up voices of authority in our world? How do you discern who you should and shouldn't listen to?