Articles tagged: conscience

At a time when nearly all his contemporaries held to the view that "error has no rights," Castellio's plea for toleration and respect for the rights of conscience was certainly exceptional. "To force conscience is worse than cruelly to kill a man," he wrote, "because I must be saved by my own faith and not by that of another... Religion resides not in the body but in the heart, which cannot be reached by the sword of kings and princes. The Church can no more be constructed by persecution and violence than walls can be built by cannon blasts." When Calvin asked how then was the true church to be recognized, Castellio answered, "By an assured faith concerning things which are hoped for, not known, by love which is better than faith and may be clearly discerned, by the doctrine of piety which is to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, to hunger and thirst after righteousness and endure persecution for righteousness' sake."

— Sebastian Castellio in All Saints (1997) by Robert Ellsberg

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Court Of Conscience is a concept developed by 17th-century European theology. The concept held that one's conscience would testify for or against one's actions in life after death. During life, the faculty of conscience was like, but not the same as, the voice of God. It drew on divine knowledge and precepts, and applied these laws in order to direct the individual toward right action and warn against wrong action. After life, the function of conscience was that of a record—animated, if you will—that would speak to a divine tribunal, in judgment for or against you. Even if one's conscience was or seemed dormant (inactive, flawed, 'seared', asleep, etc.) during one's life—as was said to be the case in the worst of villains—it came fully to life with a perfect and true memory of all one's actions before God.

— Wikipedia (not a book but it's an encyclopedia!)

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