Three Dimensions of Conscience

1. Conscience as capacity - also known as the antecedent conscience. This shows our general hunger for the good—our capacity to recognise the good. Thus it is the state of our moral selves before we confront a problem.
   
2. Conscience as process - also known as actual conscience. This is the actual process of moral reasoning when confronted with a problem. It shows that conscience is a search for what is right through accurate perception, a process of reflection, and analysis. This is achieved through the following steps.
1. Gather relevant information - who is involved in the decision? who should be involved? what are the relevant circumstances? Are there any options? What are its short-term consequences? Long term?
2. Identify the moral choice to make - What are the actual issues involved?
3. Seek Counsel - Consult the "experts" or those who have gone through similar circumstances. Likewise, one should look at scripture and tradition.
4. Reflect and Pray - Jesus himself reflected and prayed when he had to make big decisions. If conscience is a sanctuary then if we truly want to meet God, it is through prayer that we find out what His will is.
5. Evaluate alternatives - Using the information gathered, the consequences of each option are weighed. Which is the most loving way?
   
3. Conscience as judgment - also known as command conscience. This follows the search when one actually decides to act. It is a concrete judgment of what one must do in the situation. This makes the decision my own. We must obey our conscience then above all other voices in order to be true to myself. Our judgments thus help form (or deform) our antecedent conscience.
1. We are thus obliged to follow our conscience. If conscience is our search what is right, not following your conscience is tantamout to choose to do wrong.
2. Our judgments are good as the ground it was built on. Good judgments assume a well-formed antecedent conscience.
3. It always a fruit of hard labour. Judgments should not be haphazard, but the result of prayer and discernment.
   

  ¶ 10:50 pm 1 comments

  Examples of Great Short Films To help you get an idea of what I'm looking for as regards the short film project, I would like you to watch the following short films.







Kleingeld.
by Marc-Andreas Bochert. 14:56

O Branco.
by Angela Pines and Liliana Sulzbach. 22:00

Anino.
by Raymond Red. 13:00

Home Road Movies.
by Robert Bradbook. 11:43  ¶ 5:11 am 1 comments

  A Call to Grow
Recall that Keenan says that conscience is a call to grow. In his book Moral Wisdom, he quotes scripture and the works of our early christian fathers to further illustrate it.

Scripture

Keenan says that the imagery in the bible show conscience as a movement. St. Paul for instance, show this in:

Philippians 3, 13-14. "...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Galatians 5, 7. "you were running well."

We can also recall many other stories in the Bible that clearly show one's call as a movement. Recall the magi and the star, the woman with the hemorrhage moving to touch the tassel of the cloak of Jesus, the paralytic to the roof, Zaccheus to the tree, and many others.

The Early Fathers

Keenan says that our early christian fathers take this even further. They assert that one must really try to become a better person or otherwise become worse. Here is a sampling of their works.

Gregory the Great. "Certainly in this world, the human spirit is like a boat foolishly fighting against the river's rush: one is never allowed to stay still, because unless one forges ahead, one will slide back downstream."

Bernard of Clairvaux. "To not progress on the way of Life is to regress."

St. Thomas Aquinas. "To stand on the way of the Lord is to move backwards"  ¶ 4:28 am 0 comments

  However Conscience Is...
Connors & McCormick continue by articulating what conscience is.

1. a law and inner voice - since it is a law, it means that it ought to be followed. It is much like a command—but one that does not force itself upon us because it is our own voice. "Conscience is us as we struggle to discern and respond to the 'moral tug'"
   


2. a search - we said that conscience is not an infallible moral code, because it is a process of finding out what the right thing to do is. It means that we do not have all the answers, and we admit out limitations, thus we look for answers. It means that conscience really is unfinished and dynamic.
   
   Keenan (2004) furthermore elaborates that conscience is a call to grow. Thus, my conscience when I was eight years old is certainly different from my conscience now. We are called to become better and better people.
   


3. a sanctuary - a place where we meet God. Conscience does not impose itself on us; conscience is an encouter with God. Now, Miranda & Javier (2005) point out that cosncience is not God's voice within us. How then do we reconcile that with conscience being a sanctuary? We have previously said that conscience is a search. This means that we try to find out what it means to do right thing, but we do not exactly understand it. Our conscience is therefore erroneous. Our conscience at times, misunderstands what God actually wants. However, it does not negate the idea that conscience is our searching for what God wants for us.
   


4. conscience is both personal and communal - God calls us as persons and communities. We can see this in scriptures: God calls Moses and Paul individually, yet this extends to entire communities. Although previously we acknowledge that conscience is an inner voice, we know that because we are relational, our environment, the people we love: our family, out friends also help form or deform our conscience.
   

  ¶ 10:18 pm 0 comments