The Abuse of Conscience: A Century of Catholic Moral Theology
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
How important is the conscience for the Christian moral life? How should it be understood in relation to the teachings of the Bible and of church tradition?
In this book, Matthew Levering surveys twentieth-century Catholic moral theology to construct an argument for keeping conscience firmly alongside prudence, charity, and the gifts of the Spirit—and for understanding it as something that must be formed by the revealed truths of Scripture as interpreted and applied in the church. Levering shows how conscience-centered ethics came to be—both prior to and following the Second Vatican Council—and how important voices from both the Catholic and Protestant communities criticized the primacy of conscience in favor of an approach that considers conscience within “the broader framework of the Christian moral organism.”
Rather than engaging with current hot-button issues, Levering presents and deconstructs the work of twenty-six noteworthy theologians from the recent past in order to work through core matters. He begins by examining how the conscience has been dealt with in dialogue with the Bible and in the Catholic “moral manuals” of the twentieth century. He then explores the rebuttals to conscience-centered ethics offered by pre- and post-conciliar Thomists and the emergence of a new, even more problematic conscience-centered ethics in German thought. Amid this wide-ranging introduction to various strands of Catholic moral theology, Levering crafts an incisive intervention of his own against the “abuse of conscience” that besets the church today as it did in the last century.
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- Provides an incisive intervention of his own against the “abuse of conscience” that besets the church today as it did in the last century
- Examines how the conscience has been dealt with in dialogue with the Bible and in the Catholic “moral manuals” of the twentieth century
- Presents and deconstructs the work of twenty-six noteworthy theologians
- Conscience and the Bible
- Conscience and the Moral Manuals
- Conscience and the Thomists
- Conscience and German Thought
Top Highlights
“But the first practical principles that govern supernatural conscience do not come from synderesis; rather, they come from the ‘first practical principles of faith,’ such as ‘we must seek the happiness of the beatific vision’ (171).” (Page 90)
“Twentieth-century Catholic moral theology was marked throughout by an ‘abuse of conscience.’” (Page 1)
“gave too expansive a place to conscience in the Christian moral life” (Page 1)
“one reads this book in order to get a sense for what conscience is” (Page 1)
“Journal of Moral Theology 8, Special Issue 2 (2019): 134–65” (Page vii)
- Title: The Abuse of Conscience: A Century of Catholic Moral Theology
- Author: Matthew Levering
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Pages: 360
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Christian ethics › Catholic authors--History--20th century; Conscience › Religious aspects--Catholic Church
- ISBNs: 9780802879509, 0802879500
- Resource ID: LLS:CNSCNCTHCSMRLTH
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:27:26Z
Dr. Matthew Levering is James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary, and Co-Director of the Chicago Theological Initiative. He holds a B.A. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; M.T.S. from Duke University; and a Ph.D. from Boston College. He is the author or co-author of over thirty-five books including such works as Scripture and Metaphysics, Participatory Biblical Exegesis, Biblical Natural Law, Proofs of God, Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?, The Abuse of Conscience, and Reconfiguring Thomistic Christology. He is currently at work on a multi-volume dogmatics, whose first five volumes have appeared (most recently Engaging the Doctrine of Israel). He is the editor or co-editor of over twenty books including such works as The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology, Aristotle in Aquinas’s Theology, and The Reception of Vatican II. He is the translator of Gilles Emery, O.P.’’s The Trinity. He co-edits two quarterly journals, Nova et Vetera and the International Journal of Systematic Theology. He is the past president (2021-22) of the Academy of Catholic Theology, and served as its founding Chair of the Board from 2007-2016. He has been a member of Evangelicals and Catholics Together since 2004. With Thomas Joseph White, O.P., he co-edits the Thomistic Ressourcement series for Catholic University of America Press. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the St. Paul Center, and he edits the Renewal within Tradition series for Emmaus Academic Press.