The Dawn of Conscience
Conscience is a concept quickly sinking out of sight in Western culture. Maybe because it is hard to say distinctly from ‘conscious’; maybe because the demands of conscience are greater than we’d like.
I’m engaging in a one-man rear-guard action to defend conscience from the searing fires of modern culture. Today’s battle is with a quote from an early light in Western culture, Leonardo da Vinci (grabbed from the net here):
I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.
Leonardo da VinciLet’s begin the study of conscience by examining it as if it were a foreign concept, in isolation. So from this quote we can discern that conscience is involved in the approving (and therefore the disapproving) of one’s one conduct. An internal sense of the rightness or wrongness of our own actions. The essential quality being that the jurisdiction of our conscience is our own choices and acts; in 1 Corinthians 10:29, Paul writes “for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?” It may be tempting to extend the reach of our conscience in judgment of others, but it is not appropriate.
January 6, 2013