David Elliot

The Abuse of Conscience

Theology

“In this extraordinary work, Matthew Levering guides us through a crucial thicket of intellectual history in showing how moral theology has been dominated by conscience in unhealthy ways both before and after the Second Vatican Council. After a truly encyclopedic tour of the major figures and movements involved, he proposes a clear way forward: that conscience should be situated within a wider vision of moral theology shaped by the precepts of Scripture within a virtue-centered frame that is constituted by communion with Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Abuse of Conscience is quite simply the best treatment we have of the most hotly contested topic in moral theology: a marvelous feat befitting the by-now-legendary erudition of Matthew Levering.”