Conscience, A Guide?

There is nothing more burdensome and grievous then when conscience accuses us in anything, and there is nothing dearer then calmness and approval of the conscience. St Maxim the Confessor

Brethren, let us therefore try to guard our conscience, while we are in the world, without provoking it to censure us about anything, without trampling upon it in any way, even something insignificant, since you know that, from those small things, we also come to despise the great ones. Abba Dorotheos, Practical Teaching on the Christian Life.

Can conscience be an unfailing guide? I’ve heard the expression let conscience be your guide, but hadn’t really thought about it a great deal. For the most part I wouldn’t have placed much confidence in mere conscience. I know I was much put off to know that the 7th Day Adventist Church, as a teenager I was a member, allows conscience to be the guide in regards to abortion. In this view point they have a mind to current testing methods which can detect fetal abnormalities like Downs syndrome. The vast majority of these children are being aborted, based on this testing. And so here I am convinced that conscience fails. The Orthodox and Roman churches explicitly prohibit abortion with or without reference to conscience; eternal law condemns it.

I’ve been studying St. Thomas Aquinas, the Medieval Theologian, who held pre-eminent position as Doctor of the Roman Church until the Vatican II Council of the 1960’s. I was surprised to find that he held the belief that one must always obey ones conscience, even when conscience was wrong.

For Aquinas saw conscience working in steps. First are the moral principles which primarily are to do the good, avoid evil; these are self evident moral principals and not mere social conventions. Then conscience would apply these to everyday practice.

This reminds me of the discussion in ESPN around a 24 year old football prospect whose entrance into NFL has been stymied merely by the fact he was convicted of incest with his 15 year old sister. A great deal of sympathy was elicited for this individual in the ESPN article that portrayed this young man’s plight…. me not so much, because like Aquinas there are moral principles that are self evident one of which prohibition against having sex with your sister no matter how cute she seems to be. This is an universal taboo and rightfully so, not just a social convention. And yet in this current climate of moral relativism I almost feel like I have to defend the prohibition against incest or the judgment towards one who “innocently” fell in to this practice. I would invite anyone to view the Wikipedia article as to how damaging sibling to sibling incest can be, and the violence that’s invariably associated with it.

Of course the NFL has an individual convicted of dog torture, currently playing but I understand he’s done his time for the crime and deserves to make a living. And be equally assured I don’t have to watch him do it.

But I digress. The idea is that conscience detects self-evident moral principle then applies it to real life. Here is a very detailed definition of what conscience is composed:

The natural conscience is no distinct faculty, but the one intellect of a man inasmuch as it considers right and wrong in conduct, aided meanwhile by a good will, by the use of the emotions, by the practical experience of living, and by all external helps that are to the purpose.
The natural conscience of the Christian is known by him to act not alone, but under the enlightenment and the impulse derived from revelation and grace in a strictly supernatural order.
As to the order of nature, which does not exist but which might have existed, St. Thomas (I-II:109:3) teaches that both for the knowledge of God and for the knowledge of moral duty, men such as we are would require some assistance from God to make their knowledge sufficiently extensive, clear, constant, effective, and relatively adequate; and especially to put it within reach of those who are much engrossed with the cares of material life. It would be absurd to suppose that in the order of nature God could be debarred from any revelation of Himself, and would leave Himself to be searched for quite irresponsively.
Being a practical thing, conscience depends in large measure for its correctness upon the good use of it and on proper care taken to heed its deliverances, cultivate its powers, and frustrate its enemies.
Even where due diligence is employed conscience will err sometimes, but its inculpable mistakes will be admitted by God to be not blameworthy. These are so many principles needed to steady us as we tread some of the ways of ethical history, where pitfalls are many. (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911)


To describe the above more succinctly I will paraphrase.
1) Conscience involves the best use of our wisdom
2) God’s grace and inspired wisdom assists us in the use of conscience
3) Conscience best employed is best obeyed
4) Good conscience falsely ascertained is not blameworthy.

This view says good conscience should be obeyed; using our reasoning faculties, with the aid of God’s Supernatural Grace with the self-evident principle to do good and avoid evil, our conscience can be clear. Conscience diligently observed is blameless under this view.

“When erring reason proposes something as being commanded by God, then to scorn the dictate of reason is to scorn the commandment of God…” St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

I find the most interesting aspect of an active conscience is St. Aquinas’ belief in the efficacy of human reason or wisdom. Our reason was seen to be likened to God’s reason.

“Although the eternal law is unknown to us according as it is in the Divine Mind: nevertheless, it becomes known to us somewhat, either by natural reason which is derived there-from as its proper image, or by some sort of additional revelation.” St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

It’s sentiments like these that terrified the main stream media when George W. Bush was said to claimed inspiration from God in 2005. Of course many a leader has claimed some form of Godly inspiration including Abraham Lincoln. Others like Robespierre, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. claimed inspiration from great ideas of social justice that had nothing to do with God, and millions died under their care.

Aquinas, and the Roman Church, hold a very optimistic view of humanity; much more so than the Protestant Reformers of the 16th Century did. In contrast Martin Luther wrote:

The common saying that human nature in a general and universal way knows and wills the good but errs and does not will it in particular cases would be better stated if we were to say that in particular cases human nature knows and wills what is good but in general neither knows nor wills it. The reason is that it knows nothing but its own good, or what is good and honorable and useful for itself, but not what is good for God and other people. Therefore it knows and wills more what is particular, yes, only what is an individual good. And this is in agreement with Scripture, which describes man as so turned in on himself that he uses not only physical but even spiritual goods for his own purposes and in all things seeks only himself.

Luther saw human will as generally corrupt; human nature depraved; even though Luther stood against the Roman Church on conscience, a voluntary conscience. But Luther didn’t think we could inform ourselves through conscience and thus natural law; moral principles derived from reason, would fail as well. This is much closer to the modern view.

Note that first bullet point of the definition by the Catholic Encyclopedia of natural conscience involves a good will. Moderns view conscience much more dimly and can see conscience run amuck in such Medieval tragedies as burning heretics at the stake.

Eastern Orthodox have a dimmer view of conscience evidenced by a tradition of spiritual Fathers (guides) to aid in ones spiritual journey, not being left to our conscience to guide us, despite the quotes at the heading. Our human status much like Luther’s view is lost in sin. But our condition can be alleviated; we can progress through Theosis, which is a kind of spiritual regeneration. Luther and Calvin, Protestant Reformers, saw no method of healing the depraved nature: the vehicle of salvation being solely through Faith in Jesus Christ.