Friday, September 01, 2006
However Conscience Is...
Connors & McCormick continue by articulating what conscience is.
Connors & McCormick continue by articulating what conscience is.
- 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'"
- 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. - 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.
- 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.
