AN UNDERSTANDING OF CONSCIENCE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Keywords:
Conscience, Enrique Dussel, Experience, Justice, Liberation, Poor, Richard M. Gula, Scripture, Solidarity, Timothy E. O’Connell, TraditionAbstract
This article presents the three sources of moral wisdom for a full and mature conscience-based decision. While Scripture and Tradition hold a foundational place in the formation of conscience, experience as a source of moral wisdom is essential and critical, because it provides the human context for decision-making. Experience, however, has long been viewed only from the point of view of individuals, and not from the point of view of community, failing to see that individual
experience is shaped by communal experience. If the communal aspect of experience, however, has been viewed at all, it is without any assessment of whether it is through the lens of the victors (dominant culture) or the lens of the victims or vanquished. This article asserts that the experience of the victims or vanquished must be given a preferential perspective in line with what is at the core of the Gospel, and in view of the imperative of our times where love of neighbour demands a praxis of justice beyond a praxis of charity.
References
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