Conscience and Catholicism

The most recent volume appeared in 2022 and is called Conscience and Catholic Education: Theology, Administration, and Teaching. The book was co-edited by DeCosse and Kevin Baxter, the director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program at the University of Notre Dame. The book especially considers the theme of how Catholic schools and universities today should understand and practice the formation of conscience.

"First, every Catholic school administrator and diocesan education office needs a copy of this book. Then, across the country, we need to sit down and discuss each chapter together one-by-one over the course of many months, so that the wisdom and insight of each of the authors in this volume takes root in the daily discernment we are called to exercise as educational leaders."             

-- Ann M. Garrido, author, "Redeeming Administration" and "Redeeming Conflict"

Buy Conscience & Catholic Education: Theology, Administration, and Teaching at Orbis Books.

The first volume, Conscience and Catholicism: Rights, Responsibilities, and Institutional Responses, appeared in 2015 and was co-edited by DeCosse and Professor Kristin Heyer of Boston College. This volume especially focused on different cultural appropriations of conscience in the work of theologians from Japan, Nigeria, Ireland, Argentina, and beyond. 

"DeCosse and Heyer offer a fresh and original take on conscience, spinning this standard moral category across the horizons of social ethics in today's global era. The international authors presented here challenge readers to appreciate the social formation of agency and ponder the meanings of personal responsibility in the strikingly different cultures of the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The book as a whole represents an important advance in ethical theory, not limited to Catholicism." 

-- Lisa Sowle Cahill, Mohan Professor of Theology, Boston College

Buy Conscience & Catholicism at Orbis Books.

The second volume, Conscience and Catholic Health Care: From Clinical Contexts to Government Mandates, appeared in 2017 and was co-edited by DeCosse and Thomas Nairn, O.F.M, then the Senior Director for Ethics of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. This book explored the role of conscience in situations ranging from the encounter between a doctor and a patient in a clinic to the conscientious refusal of the Little Sisters of the Poor to participate in the national contraception policy of federal health care reform. 

"An essential and refreshing read, not just for health care professionals but also for secular policy advocates like myself. The authors open up the theme of conscience and move beyond the notion of conscience as a closed door or sledge hammer. For example, the communal dimension of conscience was unknown to me; I now see how imagination and the common good are also included in any moral decision. What a treat!"           

-- Sister Simone Campbell, SSS, Winner, United States Presidential Medal of Freedom

Buy Conscience & Catholic Health Care at Orbis Books.

David E. DeCosse is the Director of Religious and Catholic Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. He is the creator and co-editor of a series of books on conscience and Catholicism, author of Created Freedom Under the Sign of the Cross, and has written for publications ranging from Theological Studies to the National Catholic Reporter.

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