Page 51 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 10

Paula Tipton (USA):
Honoring & Nurturing Paula Tipton
PhD is full time
Conscience in faculty in the
Counseling Di-
Psychotherapy vision at Denver

Seminary. She
has been in pri-
It is not uncommon for clients to present for psy- vate practice for
chotherapy because an experience of pain has 20 years. Before
been inflicted upon them by others or becau- becoming a cli-
se they have been the perpetrators of another’s nical counselor
pain-- either intentionally or unintentionally. It she was on staff with Campus Crusade for
is a common assumption that human suffering Christ and Biblical Education by Extension
is often the result of another’s flawed sense of (BEE) for 18 years in Africa and Eastern
conscience such as in situations when an indi- Europe.
vidual, organization, or country fails to do what paulajtipton@gmail.com
“ought” to have been done. The disciplines of
philosophy, theology, sociology, and psycholo-
gy have offered numerous conceptualizations and of conscience, heightening the natural
of conscience that serve to broaden our under- moral effect of such truth upon the under-
standing both within the individual person and standing, conscience, and heart (pp. 459-
socially. For example, Fleming (2015) explains 450).
that the phenomenological philosopher, Em- Scripture also describes the potential for the
manuel Levinas conceptualizes conscience as a conscience to be “seared.” In 1 Timothy 4:2,
call to moral responsibility and moral goodness Paul asserts that the conscience can become
that is beyond our choice, “meaning that we do “cauterized” which renders it insensitive to any
not choose its call to do good and avoid evil, but moral pangs and dulls its ability to discern right
rather respond to it” (Fleming, 2015, p. 601). from wrong.
Conscience, then, can be understood as a fa-
Christian theology supports an understanding culty that is responsible for perceiving the ethi-
of conscience as an expression of “common cal order of meaning and (Johnson, 2007) and
grace” which enables fallen mankind to discern when properly developed in the mature adult,
right from wrong and allows human beings to enables one to respond to moral systems. Haidt
place some moral constraints on evil. The apost- and Kesebir (2010) cogently define moral sy-
le Paul explains that when unbelieving Gentiles stems as the “interlocking sets of values, vir-
who do not have the law, by nature do what tues, norms, practices, identities, institutions,
the law requires, they are a law to themsel- technologies and evolved psychological mecha-
ves, . . . They show that the work of the law nisms that work together to suppress or regula-
is written on their hearts, while their cons- te selfishness and make cooperative social life
cience also bears witness, and their conflic- possible” (p.800).
ting thoughts accuse or excuse them” (Rom.
2:1415, ESV). Neuroscience researchers point out that there
Theologian A.A. Hodge (1878) further elucida- are neural regions dedicated to the conscience
tes the connections between common grace and (presumably in the prefrontal cortex) that inte-
conscience: grate with the capacity for moral reasoning and
“Common grace” is the retraining and per- empathy (Bar-On, Tranel, Denburg, & Becha-
suading influences of the Holy Spirit acting ra, 2003; Olatunji & Puncochat, 2014). Among
only through the truth revealed in the gos- those with higher scores in psychopathology—
pel, or through the natural light of reason who show no remorse or shame with immoral

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