Follow your conscience : the Catholic Church and the spirit of the Sixties

What is your conscience? Is it, as Peter Cajka asks in this provocative book, “A small, still voice? A cricket perched on your shoulder? An angel and devil who compete for your attention?” Going back at least to the thirteenth century, Catholics viewed their personal conscience as a powerful and meaningful guide to align their conduct with worldly laws. But, as Cajka shows in __Follow Your Conscience__, during the national cultural tumult of the 1960s, the divide between the demands of conscience and the demands of the law, society, and even the church itself grew increasingly perilous. As growing numbers of Catholics started to consider formerly stout institutions to be morally hollow—especially in light of the Vietnam War and the church’s refusal to sanction birth control—they increasingly turned to their own consciences as guides for action and belief. This abandonment of higher authority had radical effects on American society, influencing not only the broader world of Christianity, but also such disparate arenas as government, law, health care, and the very vocabulary of American culture. As this book astutely reveals, today’s debates over political power, religious freedom, gay rights, and more are all deeply infused by the language and concepts outlined by these pioneers of personal conscience. "Within the Catholic Church, conscience was long a powerful internal guide to conduct that worked hand-in-hand with external law and authority. Yet in the 1960s in America, as the morality and fairness of institutions like government and the Church itself came into question, more and more Catholics relied only on their consciences. This turn away from authority had radical effects on American society, influencing other denominations, human rights activists, health-care professionals, lawyers, government employees, and the vocabulary of the greater culture. Today's debates over political power, religious freedom, gay rights, and more are infused by the language and concepts of conscience"-- Provided by publisher