PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY ST. PATRICK’S COLLEGE, MAYNOOTH THE NATURE, ROLE AND FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE IN THE THOUGHTS OF JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, GERMAIN GRISEZ AND LINDA HOGAN: AN ASSESSMENT OF THEIR THOUGHTS IN RELATION TO CHURCH TEACHING John Musa Aikoye PhD 2013 PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY ST. PATRICK’S COLLEGE, MAYNOOTH THE NATURE, ROLE AND FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE IN THE THOUGHTS OF JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, GERMAIN GRISEZ AND LINDA HOGAN: AN ASSESSMENT OF THEIR THOUGHTS IN RELATION TO CHURCH TEACHING A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THEOLOGY IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR DOCTORATE DEGREE IN THEOLOGY BY JOHN MUSA AIKOYE SUPERVISOR REV. PÁDRAIG CORKERY 2013 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this dissertation is entirely the right product of my own work.
It has not been submitted in fulfilment of degree requirements at this or any other university. Other people’s intellectual properties within this work have been duly acknowledged. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted without permission. The library may lend a copy of this thesis as per the relevant regulations.
--------------------------------------------- John Musa Aikoye November, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMNTS.xiii GENERAL INTRODUCTION.1 Chapter One The Human Person and the Concept of Conscience Introduction. The Human Person.1 The substantive view.2 The relational view.3 The functional view.2 Composed of Body and Soul.3 Endowed with Intellect (Reason). Conscience and its Theological Development.1 Conscience in Pre-Christian Greek and Roman Thinking.2 Conscience in Scripture.1 The Old Testament and Conscience.2 New Testament Usage and Understanding.3 Jerome’s Commentary on Ezekiel and Christian Usage of Conscience. Conscience in the Middle Ages.1 Aquinas’ Specific Teaching on Conscience.2 Synderesis and Conscientia.3 Does Conscientia Bind?.4 Erroneous or Mistaken Conscience.
Conscience in the Documents of the Church (Twentieth and Twenty First Century).1 Vatican II Council (1962-1965) and Conscience.2 Freedom of Conscience Proclaimed.2 Conscience in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and Pope John Paul II.1 Meaning of Conscience.2 Formation of Conscience.3 Veritatis Splendor (VS): The Misinterpreted Conscience Corrected.1 Conscience as Interior Witness and Judge.2 Veritatis Splendor and the Erroneous Conscience.4 Conscience formation as Indicated in Veritatis Splendor.5 Conscience and Human Action. Documents of Regional Episcopal Conferences on Conscience.1 Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB): Statement on the Formation of Conscience (1973).2 Irish Catholic Bishops Conference (ICBC): Conscience and Morality (1980).1 Meaning of Conscience.2 Conscience and the Law of Love.3 The Role of the Church and of the Holy Spirit.4 Conscience and Freedom.5 Conscience and Authority.6 Conscience is Sacred (Even When in Error).2 7 The Church Answers Back.1 Good Intentions not a Sufficient Test of Morality.2 Particular Acts and Basic Direction of Life.3 How Free Are Our Moral Choices?.4 What Others Do.3 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenships: A Call to Political Responsibility (2007).1 The Church, the American Catholic Conscience and the “Public Square”.2 Are American Bishops Forming the Catholic Conscience or Simply Interfering Excessively in American Political Life?.3 Whence The Bishops’ Authority to Actively Form Consciences For Faithful Citizenship that are Socially and Politically Sensitive to the Teachings of the Church?.4 Catholics and Faithful Citizenship: A Different Sort of Political Engagement.5 Shaping the American Christian Catholic Conscience for Political Engagement.6 Shaping a Pro-Active Conscience.136 Chapter Two John Henry Newman: Teacher of Conscience 1.1 Newman’s Life and Writings.1 1 Newman the Anglican.2 Newman’s Conversion Odyssey.3 The Roman Catholic Newman. The Specific Nature and Role of Conscience in Newman’s Thought.1 Conscience: Representative and Intermediary of God in the Human Person.1 Conscience: The Aboriginal Vicar of Christ.2 Conscience: A Christian-Religious Construct with Multiple Philosophical Undertones.1 Conscience: A Moral Sense.2 Conscience: A Sense of Duty.3 Conscience: A Magisterial Dictate.3 “Reason” and the “Operations of Conscience” in Newman’s Thought.1 Newman’s Religious Conscience versus Post-Thomist “Reason”. Conscience: Voice of God nevertheless to be Educated.1 The Need for Informing Conscience .1 The Religious in Opposition to the Godless Conscience.2 Erroneous Conscience: Requisite for Formation.222 Chapter Three Germain Grisez: An Epistemological Theory of Conscience 1.
Grisez’s Moral Thought and Method.1 An Unrelenting Challenger of Proportionalism.1 A Traditionalist Account of Proportionalism.2 Proportionalism: A Plausible Alternative?.1 Proportionalism: Nothing Plausible for Grisez “The Traditionalist or Non-Revisionist”.3 Grisez: “Traditionalist” Promoter of “The Morality of Principles”. Moral Principle: Free Choice and the Moral Connection.1 Basis of Free Choice.2 Free Choice as an Exercise in Co-Creation with God.2 Free Choice: A Crucial Agent in Self-Determination and in the Realisation of Human Goods.1 Free Choice: An Act of Self-Determination and an Acknowledgement of Accountability.3 Conscience, Free Choice and Accountability. Good of the Human Person.1 Goodness, Badness and Basic Human Goods.2 Basic Human Goods and Conscience. Conscience: Not Superego or Social Convention but an Awareness of Moral Truth.1 A Secularist Take on the Nature of the Superego and Social Convention…….2 The Nature and Role of Superego and Social Convention in Conscience.1 Differentiating the Superego and Social Convention from Conscience as Moral Truth……………………………………………………………….3 Social Convention as a driving force ………………………285 5.3 Superego and Social Convention in the Formation of Christian Conscience….1 A Positive Secularist Contribution to the Formation of the Mature Conscience.
Militancy in Grisez’s Method.1 Germain Grisez: A Legalist, Rule-Maker or Rule-Enforcer?.2 The Anger and Resentment of the Not-So-Clearheaded Catholic.2 A Patronised ‘Not-So-Clearheaded-Group’ Responds.1 Peer Group Opposition. The Muting of Germain Grisez.1 Why the extreme partisan uptake or rejection of Grisez’s thought and teaching? .311 Chapter Four Linda Hogan: A Personalist Notion of Conscience 1.1 The Battle of Paradigms: Key Source of Vagueness in Catholic Teaching on Conscience. Appraisal of the Legalistic (Ecclesial) Model of Church, Morality and Conscience.1 The Evolution of a New Theological Paradigm. Integration of Personalist Paradigm into Catholic Moral Theology.1 Vatican II and Personalist Paradigm.
Contrasting Concepts Fundamental to the Personalist Approach: Subjectivity/Objectivity and Concreteness/Universality.1 Contrasting Assessments by Hogan of Papal Participation in the subjectivist/objectivist Debate. A Personalist Moral Theology and Personalist Theology of Conscience.1 A Personalist Re-Conceptualisation of Norms and Principles.2 A Personalist Approach to “Intrinsic Evil”.3 Revitalization of the Moral Authority of the Individual.4 “The Person Integrally and Adequately Considered” in relation to the Personalist Model of Conscience.1 Häring’s Model of Conscience: a Product of a Personalist Model of Moral Theology. Hogan’s Core Delineation of Conscience from a Personalist Model of Moral Theology.1 Integration of the Fundamental Option into the Personalist Model of Conscience.2 Integrating the Inward Dynamics of the Human Person.1 Conscience and the Emotions.2 Conscience and Intuition.3 Conscience and Imagination.4 Conscience and Spiritual Discernment.3 The Extinguishing or Compromising of the Conscience. Some Litmus Tests for Hogan’s Personalist Model of Conscience.1 Personalist model of Conscience and Erroneous Conscience.1 The Erroneous Conscience and Original Sin.2 The Erroneous Conscience and Social Sin.3 John Paul II and the Erroneous Conscience.403 Chapter Five John Henry Newman, Germain Grisez and Linda Hogan: Comparisons and Conclusion 1.
Newman, Grisez and Hogan – Juxtaposition. The Nature and Meaning of Conscience: A Three-in-One Consideration.1 Conscience/1: Human Characteristic and Capacity.2 Conscience/2: A Moral Process.3 Conscience/3: A Consummately Concrete Event.4 Filling the Gap: The Consequent Stage of Conscientia.435 4 The Obligation to Follow One’s Conscience – But Which One?. Relating the Sources of Moral Wisdom to the Binding Power of an Informed Conscience.1 Newman, Grisez and Hogan on the Formation of Conscience and the Exercise of an Informed Conscience. Conscience and Moral Teachings of the Church – To Dissent or not to Dissent.473 xi ACKNOWLEDGEMNTS This work could not have been completed without the Grace of God, the Author of my life, to Him I say: Ojima ki chei wẹ fai t’ogbegbeilẹ.
I pray for my late bishop, Ephraim S. Obot and thank my present bishop, Anthony A. Adaji for their prayers and support. I thank also Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin for his kindness in providing me with favourable accommodation for my studies in the archdiocese.
My profound gratitude goes to the Institute of Missiology, Aachen, Germany for providing the financial resources for my studies. In the same vein, I am indebted to the staff and students of St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Makurdi for their prayers and support. I wish to express sincere appreciation to Dr.
Pádraig Corkery who directed this thesis. His simplicity and theological genius and experience inspired me in completing this thesis. His dedication, observations and kind criticisms helped to clarify my theological vision. All I can say is: Thank you so much.
In a special way I say a big thank you to everyone who assisted me in one way or the other to fulfil this thesis. I thank especially Fr. Gerry Kane, Fr. Tom Noone, Patrick Kelly, Sr.
Julie Doran, Sr. Nuala O’Donnell, Frs. Thomas Ali Edogbanya, Emmanuel Isah Abuh, Timothy Mejida, Douglas Zaggi and Gobezayehu Yilma for their immense love and kindness. I am equally grateful to members of St.
Vincent de Paul Parish, Marino, Dublin, for their prayers and kindness. Thanks to Colette Reynolds and Sinéad Fraher for their encouragement. I am grateful to Msgr Kenneth Enang, Msgr John Iyere and Msgr Dominic Adama for their fatherly love and for believing in me. Finally, I remain eternally grateful to my parents, late Capt.
Joseph Jekeli Aikoye and Lawretta Aladi Achele Aikoye. To my sisters and brothers, extended family members and friends, I remain ever indebted. Ọjọ ki dẹnyo nwu mẹ chakaaa. xii ABBREVIATIONS CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church CM Conscience and Morality CS Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God FCFC Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenships: A Call to Political Responsibility IDB Dictionary of the Bible LC Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation (Libertatis Conscientia) LD The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman NCE New Catholic Encyclopeadia NIDB The New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible PPS Parochial and Plain Sermons QDV Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate SCG Summa Contra Gentiles SDB Summa De Bono SFC Statement on the Formation of Conscience ST Summa Theologica SVO Sermons Preached on Various Occasions US Fifteen Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford: Between A.
1826 and 1843 VS Veritatis Splendor xiii GENERAL INTRODUCTION From the birth of Christianity to the present day, conscience has been a prominent and essentially contentious concept in Catholic moral theology and tradition. Catholic theologians have, for centuries, engaged in generating elaborate treatises on the meaning, nature, primacy, role and formation of this human capacity for moral choice. The concept has raised bitter, divisive and damaging disputations in history between individual conscience and perceived objective truth that is subjective/objective dilemma. For instance, Martin Luther unapologetically asserted that: I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.
I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.1 In the presence of ecclesiastical and political leaders, Luther has done no less than to proclaim his ‘captive’ allegiance to the doctrine of the primacy of conscience. In response to such a declaration, the Secretary to the Diet of Worms remonstrated with Luther as follows: Lay aside your conscience, Martin; you must lay it aside because it is in error; and it will be safe and proper for you to recant. Although you say the councils have erred you will never be able to prove it, in matters of faith at least, and even in matters of moral I fancy it will be with much difficulty.2 Amongst the issues raised by this response, issues that are dealt with during the course of this thesis, are that: (i) the primacy of conscience will inevitably lead to conflict between the individual and the institutions, be they political or ecclesiastical; (ii) the expectation that the individual conscience should ‘naturally’ defer to the professionalised ‘wisdom’ of the institution; (iii) the ecclesiastical management of the erroneous conscience; and (iv) even in the event of the institution being in error, it is better that the individual recant his or her own 1 Martin Luther, Luther’s Works: Career of the Reformer vol. 1 insights and continue to obey institutional edicts because as a minority of one, he or she will always find it inherently difficult to satisfactorily establish such institutional error.