A Call to Action: Global Moral Crises and the Inadequacy of Inherited Approaches to Conscience

This essay considers whether the model of conscience operative in Christian ethics, what I call the "reflexive conscience," is adequate to meet the global moral challenges we face today, problems such as gun violence, climate change, and the Zika virus. Drawing primarily on the work of Wil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
Main Author: Block, Elizabeth Sweeny (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Philosophy Documentation Center [2017]
In: Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
RelBib Classification:FA Theology
NBE Anthropology
NCA Ethics
VA Philosophy
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This essay considers whether the model of conscience operative in Christian ethics, what I call the "reflexive conscience," is adequate to meet the global moral challenges we face today, problems such as gun violence, climate change, and the Zika virus. Drawing primarily on the work of Willis Jenkins, I argue that conscience has not yet caught up to the scale and interconnectedness of our global moral challenges. A truly "engaged conscience" must be focused not primarily on the self but on the other, and must be active. I conclude by turning to Elisabeth Vasko's criticisms of the victim/perpetrator binary to suggest that conscience must call us to greater responsibility for the systemic injustices in which particular moral challenges are embedded.
ISSN:2326-2176
Contains:Enthalten in: Society of Christian Ethics, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/sce.2017.0034