CONSCIENCE ASSIGNMENT
Essay Assignment for ODM
"Always follow your conscience".
What does this mean and should a Christian subscribe to such a view ?
It is important here to think through different understandings of 'conscience' among Christians and what it means to follow (or not to follow) conscience.
Lecture 4 should cover some relevant material.
Introductory Reading
Biblical texts
Read article on "Conscience" in Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology Vol 1:348-53 and look up main passages cited there esp Rom 2.15.
Dictionaries
- "Conscience" in IVP Dictionary, pp251-2.
- "Conscience" in SCM Dictionary, pp116-18.
- "Conscience" in Hastings, Mason & Pyper, Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, pp 129-31.
For surveys of different meanings and the issues see -
- Gill, Robin. A Textbook of Christian Ethics, pp19-20.
- Holmgren, Stephen, Ethics After Easter, pp118-24.
- Attwood, David, Changing Values, pp170-82.
Roman Catholic Thought
Most of the thinking and writing about conscience comes from the Roman Catholic tradition.
Official RC teaching is helpfully summarised in Catechism of the Catholic Church (Part 3, Section 1, Article 6, paras 1776-1802)
The current Pope's clear statement on the mainstream Catholic view should be read -Veritatis Splendor sections 54-64, extract in Boulton, Wayne G. et.al, From Christ to the World, pp118-22.
A succinct summary of traditional Catholic teaching can be found in Ronald Lawler et. al., Catholic Sexual Ethics, Chpt 5 (pp96-111) and William E. May, An Introduction to Moral Theology (2nd edn), pp57-65
For a modern Roman Catholic account drawing on Aquinas & the tradition – Germain Grisez & Russell Shaw, Fulfillment in Christ, pp26-37.
A Roman Catholic perspective on the historical use of conscience can be gained from John Mahoney. The Making of Moral Theology : A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition, pp184-93.
Protestant Thinking
For Protestant critiques and redefinitions of "conscience" and the tradition see -
- Oliver O'Donovan, Resurrection and Moral Order, pp114-20,190-97 and then more recently, The Ways of Judgment, pp301-8.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics (Works Vol 6), 276-83, 307-9.
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