Page 128 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 10

Sarah Groen-Colyn (USA)
The coming of faith:

law, conscience, and moral Sarah Colyn
sensitivity of the human is the president
of Ministries of
soul Pastoral Care
(MPC), a tea-
ching and he-
As I began work on this paper, I asked a aling ministry
thoughtful twelve year-old what the conscience dedicated to im-
is. After a quiet pause, he offered a very good parting a biblical understanding of persons
definition: “It tries to guide you.” In some way and how we grow into Christian maturity.
When not leading MPC schools in Europe,
or another the conscience has been a considera- Korea, New Zealand and the USA, she also
tion of theological anthropologists throughout maintains a small Christian psychology
recorded history who have sought to under- practice, facilitating union with Christ for
stand how the conscience performs this attempt individuals and a women’s group.
to guide us. Christian psychology and pastoral
care are pressed to consider the conscience sim- sarah@ministriesofpastoralcare.com
ply because it is often disordered, and its healing
is critical to maturity. If Christian teachers, pa-
stors, and counselors aren’t mindful of the cons-
cience as a feature of the soul, and therefore a
feature that may be healthy or diseased, fallen
yet redeemable, much will be neglected and dis-
torted.

Over the last 50 years, the field of psychology Christians have been rightly wary of modern
has drifted away from examination of the cons- psychology where it has viewed guilt solely as
cience (as well as the superego, a psychoanalytic neurotic and has made freedom from the dis-
construct that incorporates much of what we comfort of guilt feelings the goal of psychologi-
might consider the conscience). An interest in cal treatment. Frank Lake notes the significant
how the soul experiences and responds to awa- difference between the goals of secular treat-
reness of guilt has diminished “in favour of a ment and Christian pastoral care: “The work of
preoccupation with shame, narcissism, self, re- the physician is completed when the pleasant
latedness, intersubjectivity and, most recently, feelings have returned to the patient’s satisfac-
the neurological foundations of mind” (Car- tion. It is part of the pastoral task to distinguish
veth, 2015, p. 206). There are some hopeful between a healthy natural euphoria and what
signs of renewed interest in the conscience in is called ‘assurance,’ which is a spiritually va-
secular psychology. For example, researchers lid sense of being at peace with God.” (p. 233).
are considering “stress of conscience” as a con- Christian Smith’s findings on the religious life
tributor to burnout among law enforcement of American youth also evidence this rejection
and health care workers (Padyab, 2016) (Eric- of guilt. “In short, our teen interview transcripts
son-Lidman, 2015) as well as morally injurious reveal clearly that the language that dominates
events as a cause of PTSD in military service U.S. adolescent interests and thinking about
(Jordan, 2017), and some psychoanalytic wri- life—including religious and spiritual life—is
ters are even addressing the conscience with a primarily about personally feeling good and
theological interest as well (Sagan, 1988; Car- being happy” (Smith & Lundquist Denton,
veth, 2013; Fowler, 2017). 2009, p. 8).

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