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Moral Conscience

This document discusses moral conscience and its formation. It defines conscience as the act of practical judgment that decides if an action is good or bad. There are different types of conscience, including correct, erroneous, certain, doubtful, scrupulous, and lax. Forming a well-informed conscience is challenging due to extreme relativism, misinformation, and individualism. However, conscience can be properly formed through prayer, listening to gospel preaching, involvement in the Christian community, and considering multiple disciplines. Prayer is especially important to discern God's voice when other voices conflict.

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Mila Casandra Castañeda
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13 views

Moral Conscience

This document discusses moral conscience and its formation. It defines conscience as the act of practical judgment that decides if an action is good or bad. There are different types of conscience, including correct, erroneous, certain, doubtful, scrupulous, and lax. Forming a well-informed conscience is challenging due to extreme relativism, misinformation, and individualism. However, conscience can be properly formed through prayer, listening to gospel preaching, involvement in the Christian community, and considering multiple disciplines. Prayer is especially important to discern God's voice when other voices conflict.

Uploaded by

Mila Casandra Castañeda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LESSON 5

MORAL CONSCIENCE

(WEEKS 9 and 10)


OBJECTIVES

1. To define and explain moral conscience


2. To determine ways to form the right conscience
3. To show the importance of prayer in one’s moral conscience

Let’s get Started:

WHAT IS CONSCIENCE?

Conscience is the proximate norm of morality. It is proximate because it is what directly


confronts an action as good or bad. Its function is to examine, to judge, and to pass a “sentence” on all
moral actions.

The word is derived from the Latin “conscientia” which means “trial of oneself” both in
accusation and in defense (Tillich: 63).

Conscience is defined as an act of the practical judgment of reason deciding upon an individual
action as good to be performed or as evil to be avoided. (Panizo: 63)

KINDS OF CONSCIENCE

1. CORRECT OR TRUE CONSCIENCE judges what is good as good and what is evil is evil.

2. ERRONEOUS OR FALSE CONSCIENCE judges incorrectly that what is good is evil and what is evil
is good. Errors in conscience comes from the following factors:
a. Mistake in inferential thinking, such as deriving a wrong conclusion from given moral
principles;
b. Ignorance of the law;
c. Ignorance of the fact and other circumstances modifying human actions;
d. Ignorance of future consequences, especially those dependent on the free will of other.

An erroneous conscience whose error is not willfully intended is called INCULPABLE


CONSCIENCE. While an erroneous conscience whose error is due to neglect, or malice, is called
CULPABLE CONSCIENCE.

3. CERTAIN CONSCIENCE is a subjective assurance of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a certain


act. This implies that the person is sure of his decision. Many theologians believe that a certain
conscience should always be followed. This is to preserve the integrity of the human reason.
One who contradicts his certain conscience is morally guilty.

4. DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE is a vacillating conscience, unable to form a definite judgment on a


certain action. A doubtful conscience must first be allowed to settle its doubts before an action
is performed.

5. SCRUPULOUS CONSCIENCE is a rigorous conscience, extremely afRaid of committing evil. A


scrupulous conscience is meticulous and wants inconvertible proofs before it acts.

6. LAX CONSCIENCE is one which refuses to be bothered about the distinction of good and evil. It
rushes on and is quick to justify itself.

CHALLENGES TO THE FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE

With all the classifications of conscience, is it easy to determine whether one’s conscience is
geared towards the good or bad? This is where the education and formation of conscience come in. The
formation of conscience helps one to deliberate properly whether what he/she is doing is good or bad.
It is good to stress that the formation of conscience is a life-long process, not an overnight activity. It is
learned through experience and time. Mc Tavish in his article, The Formation of Conscience, cites some
challenges in the formation and education of conscience which are worth mentioning and they are the
following:

1. EXTREME RELATIVISM. This means, everybody decides according to what he/she thinks to be good
one, without consulting knowledgeable people or other authorities. It is indeed detrimental to decision-
making if a person depends only on his/her relativistic thinking. There will be no room for clarification
and proper advice.

2. MISINFORMATION. This is to say that every now and then, one hears reactions, comments and
opinions from people. Some are very convincing and persuasive. Yet, it is not a guarantee that it is the
truth.
3. INDIVIDUALISM. This is a drive towards one’s own satisfaction while disregarding other people. In
other words, it is an attitude of “my world and mine alone and outside of me is not significant.”

FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE

To meet the aforementioned challenges, there are suggested ways by which the Christian moral
conscience can be formed and educated.

1. THROUGH PRAYER. According to Lipio, prayer is of vital importance in the process of conscience
formation. Persons who wish to have a true Christian conscience must be faithful in communicating
with the Lord in their daily lives (Lipio, 66).

2. THORUGH LISTENING TO THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. “In the homily, preachers need to make a
greater effort to be faithful to the biblical text and mindful of the condition of the faithful providing
them assistance in interpreting the events of their personal lives and historical happenings in the light of
faith” (Mc Tavish, 2011).

3. THROUGH THE ROLE OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY. As children of God, people always need to
depend on one another especially on matters that they want to be clarified with regarding their course
of action. People do not live individually but with others.

4. THROUGH MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH. This is to say that other fields of science such as
psychology, economics, civil laws, etc. are considered in forming one’s conscience. However, these
fields should not be the only measure in decision making. What is important here is that other
perspectives are considered, and it is where one can derive good decision.

Thus, the formation of conscience is indeed a great challenge for all, not only for Christians. To
say that conscience is God’s voice is easy, yet in reality one may get confused because there are
conflicting voices. That is why it is best to emphasize the importance of prayer because it is where one
can truly be assured that he/she hears and listens to God’s voice.

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