On Conscience: Two Essays

by Pope Benedict XVI

Publishers:

Ignatius; The National Catholic Bioethics Center

, 2007

Overview

Prepared and co-published by the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, this book is a combination of two lengthy essays written by Cardinal Ratzinger and delivered in talks when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Both talks deal with the importance of conscience and its exercise in particular circumstances.

Ratzinger’s reflections show that contemporary debates over the nature of conscience have deep historical and philosophical roots. He says that a person is bound to act in accord with his conscience, but he makes it clear that there must be reliable, proven sources for the judgment of conscience in moral issues, other than the subjective reflections of each individual.

The always unique and profound insights that the new Pope Benedict XVI brings to perennial problems reminds the reader of his strong warning before the recent papal conclave of the great dangers today of the “dictatorship of relativism.”

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Key Features

• Combines two essays dealing with the importance of conscience
• Reflects on the historical and philosophical roots regarding the nature of conscience
• Provides profound biblical teaching for both Protestants and Catholics

Contents

• Conscience and Truth
• Biships, Theologians, and Morality

Top Highlights

“First, conscience is not identical to personal wishes and taste. Second, conscience cannot be reduced to social advantage, to group consensus, or to the demands of political and social power.” (Page 26)

“For Newman, the middle term—which establishes the connection between authority and subjectivity—is truth” (Page 24)

“morality requires not the specialist, but the witness” (Page 69)

“What characterizes man as man is not that he asks about the ‘can’ but about the ‘should,’ and that he opens himself to the voice and demands of truth.” (Page 29)

“that man’s capacity for truth is a limit on all power and a guarantee of man’s likeness to God.” (Pages 29–30)

Product Details

• Title: On Conscience: Two Essays
• Author: Joseph Ratzinger
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 95
• Christian Group: Catholic
• Resource Type: Collected Essays
• Topic: Creeds, Councils, Confessions, and Catechisms

About Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI was the 265th pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. A native of Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship.