Conscience, Relativism, and Truth: The Witness of Saint John Henry Newman

Abstract

Conscience, Relativism, and Truth:The Witness of Saint John Henry Newman Anthony Fisher O.P. 1 On October 13, 2019 the Church canonized a man whose life and work has been described by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as "one great commentary on the question of conscience," 2 who was praised by Pope Saint John Paul II for his "deep intellectual honesty [and] fidelity to conscience and grace," 3 and who is celebrated by many as one worthy of [End Page 337] 338 the title of Doctor of the Church and specifically "doctor of conscience." 4 That such a high authority on conscience is being celebrated in this way could not be more timely: for rights of conscience are regularly flouted today and the very idea of conscience much contested. Some treat it as mere sincerity or subjective intuition; others as personal rivalry with authority; others again dismiss it altogether as mythology. Oxford don Julian Savalescu sounds like Newman's nineteenth-century denigrators as he writes off appeals to conscience as "idiosyncratic, bigoted, and discriminatory." 5 Behind disputes over whether religious or moral believers engaged in healthcare or other pursuits should have the space to pursue their conscientious beliefs, and even have conscience protections, 6 is the deeper question of the meaning, basis, and scope of conscience, and there is no one better to explore this with than our new saint. Conscience in Newman's Day Newman was heir to a long and rich tradition on conscience going back to Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, and Thomas More. 7 Joseph Butler mediated [End Page 338] much of that tradition to Newman's generation. He described conscience as "moral Reason, moral Sense, or divine Reason … a Sentiment of the Understanding, or a Perception of the Heart" by which an agent reflects on action prospectively or retrospectively, applying moral principles available to all. 8 Butler reflected the turn away from metaphysical to more psychological explanations of ethics in that age. In Newman's own century new views of conscience were emerging: for Nonconformists, conscience was freedom of religion along with moral constraints on anything that made you smile; for the Kantians, it was stern-faced practical reason holding duty up before the agent for their acquittal or condemnation; for the liberals, it was about "doing it my way" constrained only by law and education; for the Darwinists, an evolved mechanism for managing conflict between competing natural impulses or species; for the Marxists and Nietzscheans, a social policeman, the construct of a controlling community. It was against such a background that Newman sought to teach his version of the tradition on conscience. His most famous treatment was in his Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, 9 but we find thoughts on conscience in his sermons, treatises, hymns, even novels. Conscience rates a mention 588 times in his letters and diaries alone. But as with Thomas More, we see in Newman someone not just speculating about moral theory but often personally agonizing over what to do. 10 [End Page 339] Newman gave his witness to Catholic conscience in an environment in which it was not always well-respected. Pope Emeritus Benedict attributes Newman's youthful conversion from rationalism to Christianity to the discovery of "the objective truth of a personal and living God, who speaks to the conscience and reveals to man his condition as a creature." This first conversion—and the subsequent two, to High Churchman and then to Catholic—were not well-received by all. Yet from the Calvinist Thomas Scott he learnt "his determination to adhere to the interior Master with his own conscience, confidently abandoning himself to the Father and living in faithfulness to the recognized truth." Though "he was subjected to many trials, disappointments and misunderstandings, … he never descended to false compromises. … He always remained honest in his search for the truth, faithful to the promptings of his conscience, and focused on the ideal of sanctity." 11 After "pope-ing" in 1845, Newman's honesty was impeached by Reverend Charles Kingsley. This provoked his famous Apologia Pro Vita Sua, a spiritual autobiography that detailed his tussles of conscience [End Page 340] and responded to the accusations of bad faith. A few...