T&T Clark The Single Individual and the Searcher of Hearts: A Retrieval of Conscience in the Work of Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard (T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics)

Jeff Morgan argues that both Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard conceive of conscience as an individuals moral self-awareness before God, specifically before the claim God makes upon each person. This innovative reading offers a correction to prevailing views that both figures, especially Kant, are significantly responsible for laying the grounds for the autonomous individual of modern life the atomistic individual who is accountable chiefly to themselves as their own lawmaker. The Single Individual and the Searcher of Hearts first challenges the dismissal of conscience in twentieth-century Christian ethics, often in favour of an emphasis on corporate life and corporate self-understanding. Morgan does this through a fresh engagement with major figures such as Stanley Hauerwas and Oliver ODonovan. He shows that this dismissal is based on a misinterpretation of Immanuel Kants practical philosophy and moral theology and Søren Kierkegaards second authorship. Instead, Morgan situates Kant and Kierkegaard within a broad trajectory in Christian thought in which an individuals moral self-awareness before God, as distinct from moral self-awareness before a community, is an essential feature of the Christian moral life. This volume is essential reading for students of twentieth-century Christian ethics and moral philosophy, as well as scholars specialising in the philosophy of Kant and Kierkegaard. Review "Resisting dominant contemporary conceptions of conscience as either the infallible voice of God within or the internalization of communal norms, Jeff Morgan retrieves from Kant and Kierkegaard a fresh notion of conscience as the site of personal accountability to God. However critical the role of the community is in mediating God's presence, personal accountability to God may never be collapsed into accountability to the church or any other community. Morgan's study offers a vital reminder that the pathologies of the modern self-asserting subject cannot be healed through fideistic recourse to communal authority." --Jennifer A. Herdt, Yale Divinity School, USA"This lucid and thought-provoking study rehabilitates a conception of conscience that should never have been dismissed and shows why its recovery is vital to the moral life and the life of faith. The splendid readings of Kant and Kierkegaard, the incisive criticisms of their detractors, and the patient yet insistent case for the necessity of conscientious self-examination before God make this a compelling read. If we are now witnessing a recovery of conscience as a central topic in theological ethics, this book is poised to lead the way. I wholeheartedly (and conscientiously!) recommend it." --Gerald McKenny, University of Notre Dame, USAThis lucid and thought-provoking study rehabilitates a conception of conscience that should never have been dismissed and shows why its recovery is vital to the moral life and the life of faith. The splendid readings of Kant and Kierkegaard, the incisive criticisms of their detractors, and the patient yet insistent case for the necessity of conscientious self-examination before God make this a compelling read. If we are now witnessing a recovery of conscience as a central topic in theological ethics, this book is poised to lead the way. I wholeheartedly (and conscientiously!) recommend it. --Gerald McKenny, University of Notre Dame, USA About the Author Jeff Morgan is Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics at Saint Josephs College of Maine, USA. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, USA, in Christian Ethics and was a Catherine of Siena Fellow in Ethics at Villanova University, USA. He lives in Portland, Maine with his wife and four children.