Conscience the Path to Holiness

The writings on the nature of conscience are many, and those of John Henry Cardinal Newman about conscience are among the very best. Conscience the Path to Holiness: Walking with Newman is the work of ten Newman scholars from three continents. Against the contemporary view that conscience means one's inalienable right to assert with impunity whatever one feels personally convinced of, this book reclaims a richer and more balanced presentation of conscience that avoids what Newman, in his day, called counterfeit conscience, that is, the right to assert self-will. But why the connection with holiness, a feature that might seem archaic to moderns? Faithfulness to conscience, even to an erring conscience, is not only self-correcting in its pursuit, it is also ennobling. The more ennobled a person becomes, the closer he or she draws to God's image and likeness, even if the person does not acknowledge God's reality. Such was Newman's contention, and such is the testimony to him in this book.