Conscience: Capacity, Process, and Judgment

“Conscience. It is probably the most well-worn word in our moral vocabulary” (167). So begins Paul Wadell’s explanation of conscience. Wadell begins by pointing out society’s contemporary stance on morality, with many thinking conscience is “rules and regulations” we all must follow in order to lead a moral life. But Wadell argues against this, pointing out a serious flaw, saying rules and laws can only be guidelines in our moral decision-making, but “they cannot always tell us precisely what needs to be done,” and they are “general, designed to apply to a wide variety of circumstances; however, our task is to do the good not in some general, abstract way, but in light of the particular, often complex, and frequently changing scenarios of our lives” (184). To help us understand our conscience, and ourselves, more deeply, Wadell divides conscience into three parts: capacity, process, and finally, judgment.

Wadell begins explaining conscience by suggesting it is first and foremost a capacity, saying conscience is a sacred possession, “‘the most secret core and sanctuary’ of a person, where he or she is ‘alone with God’” (167). This view is comparatively like Etty Hillesum’s “deep well” view of God, seeing God as the well she drinks from. With capacity of conscience, Wadell argues that like anything living, conscience may atrophy if it is not cared for, saying “Our conscience is a living thing, and like all living things it can grow and flourish, but it can also stagnate, weaken, and die. […] Everyone may be born with a capacity for conscience—a capacity for moral awareness, sensitivity, and responsibility—but that capacity has to be nurtured, honed, and developed into a habit or virtue of moral awareness, sensitivity, and responsibility,” which leads us into Wadell’s second aspect of conscience: process (171). With the previous quote, we can see we must continually grow and learn in order to maintain a healthy conscience, and a way Wadell suggests of doing this is through the counsel of others, stating, “Our experience, knowledge, insight, and awareness are too limited to always be trustworthy moral guides. Too, there are many things that blur our perception of reality. […] This is why being responsible for our conscience demands not only that we develop a love for and attraction to the good, but we also seek the counsel of others. [Which] requires ongoing input, guidance, and even correction of others” (177). The final aspect of Wadell’s form of conscience is judgment, which leads us to prudence. This part of conscience is viewed by Wadell to be freedom of conscience and the ability to be one’s own person, and Wadell quotes Richard Gula on this matter, stating, “It is not enough to follow what one has been told. The morally mature person must be able to perceive, choose, and identify oneself with what one does,” (180) and in turn, Wadell draws more support from another theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, saying, “that we ought to die excommunicated rather than violate our conscience” (181). Wadell wraps up on conscience with prudence, saying, “Conscience is completed in action—its aim is to achieve excellence in goodness—but for this to occur we must become skilled in bringing goodness to life in the most fitting possible way, and this is the function of prudence” (183). With prudence, we are able to complete our conscience by making the most fitting decision, through practical wisdom, for the different particular scenarios in our lives.

In the course, we have also discussed these matters of conscience, and have come to the conclusion that none of the three facets—capacity, process, and judgment—can function without the other. With these, we looked at the “freeze frame” view of conscience, seeing how they all tie together. Like Wadell, we see capacity as the innermost and deepest sanctuary, where one is alone with God, and where a person’s responsibility isn’t to outside law, but to the call of God in one’s own life. But we have also placed our passions, our character, and our inclinations—protecting human life, sharing/nurturing/educating life, and seeking the common good together in society and coming to know the truth about God—in this component. In process, we gathered that the framework of conscience is the meeting place of the person with God, and where our conscience joins with the community for guidance in what is truly good. Process is seen as the ongoing process of reflection. And finally, in Wadell’s view on “courage to be one’s own person,” we garnered that the event of a moral judgment is the person coming back to themselves in making a judgment about what is right in a particular situation.

In summary, conscience is seen in both situations as capacity, process, and judgment. But still, contradictory to what we have been taught, many people would look on conscience as a device to be possessed. In this section of the course, we have been taught that conscience is something everyone has the capacity for, where one is alone with God, but in order for our conscience to grow we must continually learn and seek counsel in the many aspects of life, because our own knowledge wouldn’t be enough. Finally, in the last component, we are able to come back to ourselves to make good moral judgments on complex situations. With all these aspects, it is hard to argue conscience is only a mechanism we may possess, but as Wadell wrote much better, “We are our conscience” (168).

-Jennifer W.