Follow Your Conscience: The Catholic Church and the Spirit of the Sixties (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780226762050)

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.

Author: Peter Cajka
ISBN-10: 022676205X
ISBN-13: 9780226762050
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 05/05/2021
Pages: 232
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.00d