Ian Clausen: Conscience and Hope in the Order of Love

This paper focuses on the place of moral conscience in Augustine’s application of the order of love. Beginning with his argument in Enarrationes in Psalmos 31.2 that possession of a good conscience is what gives rise to hope (citing 1 Tim 1:5), I propose to explore the link between hope and conscience as it emerges in Augustine’s portrayal of a redeemed moral agency and a redeemed moral community. How does one convey the inner state of one’s conscience? If conscience is intrinsically private and non-communicable, this poses a serious problem for forming and sustaining a healthy community. Both society and politics suffer on this account, as our basic inability to discern another’s motives – even that of a friend’s! – leaves us vulnerable to the vagaries of the tempted human heart. In this respect, Augustine is distinctive in confronting the tragic dimensions of “the darkness of this social life” (civ. 19.5). Yet he also teaches that pilgrims to the heavenly city have been summoned to testify to the work of divine grace. They have been summoned, that is, to “give rise to hope” through confessing, sharing and dwelling in each other’s interior lives, including the purified conscience. What is Augustine’s precise account of this process, and how does it contribute to the ordering and perseverance of the redeemed community?