Conscience
Conscience is simply our capacity to know and choose good. A 'healthy conscience' requires knowing moral principles and how to apply them. Christian thinkers since St Paul and St Augustine have relied on this capacity in explaining how God shares his law with us. St Thomas Aquinas usefully gave separate analyses of the capacity to know the good and the capacity to choose it. Catholic tradition has followed Aquinas in claiming all humans with the use of reason have the capacity to know all morally important goods (truth, friendship, health etc.) and can develop the capacity to choose them in accord with sound moral principles.
Conscience is necessarily free: no one can force us to think or choose morally. However, this doesn't mean exercise of conscience is choosing to do whatever you want or choosing whatever feels right: healthy conscience is knowledge about morality, not subjective feelings about morality. Consciences may be badly formed: ignorant of moral principles, self-interested, simply reflecting accepted & controversial social practices. Such an un-free conscience may cause us to feel we can 'conscientiously' reject important moral teachings. This is always a sign conscience needs re-examined.
Conscience is simply our capacity to know and choose good. A 'healthy conscience' requires knowing moral principles and how to apply them. Christian thinkers since St Paul and St Augustine have relied on this capacity in explaining how God shares his law with us. St Thomas Aquinas usefully gave separate analyses of the capacity to know the good and the capacity to choose it. Catholic tradition has followed Aquinas in claiming all humans with the use of reason have the capacity to know all morally important goods (truth, friendship, health etc.) and can develop the capacity to choose them in accord with sound moral principles.
Conscience is necessarily free: no one can force us to think or choose morally. However, this doesn't mean exercise of conscience is choosing to do whatever you want or choosing whatever feels right: healthy conscience is knowledge about morality, not subjective feelings about morality. Consciences may be badly formed: ignorant of moral principles, self-interested, simply reflecting accepted & controversial social practices. Such an un-free conscience may cause us to feel we can 'conscientiously' reject important moral teachings. This is always a sign conscience needs re-examined.
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