Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey

by Harold M. Schulweis

A Profound and Stirring Call to Action in Our Troubled World―from One of America's Great Religious Leaders "Conscience may be understood as the hidden inner compass that guides our lives and must be searched for and recovered repeatedly. At no time more than our own is this need to retrieve the shards of broken conscience more urgent."
―from the Introduction This clarion call to rethink our moral and political behavior examines the idea of conscience and the role conscience plays in our relationships to government, law, ethics, religion, human nature and God―and to each other. From Abraham to Abu Ghraib, from the dissenting prophets to Darfur, Rabbi Harold Schulweis probes history, the Bible and the works of contemporary thinkers for ideas about both critical disobedience and uncritical obedience. He illuminates the potential for evil and the potential for good that rests within us as individuals and as a society. By questioning religion's capacity―and will―to break from mindless conformity, Rabbi Schulweis challenges us to counter our current suppressive culture of obedience with the culture of moral compassion, and to fulfill religion's obligation to make room for and carry out courageous moral dissent.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Argues the vital importance of individuals exercising conscience in the face of secular and religious authority, illustrates this theme using Jewish religious texts and tradition, and calls for people to deliberately develop their conscience even though most religious and political institutions support authority over individual conscience and freedom. It also points to the importance of recognizing the altruistic side of human nature and the many acts of selflessness and conscience that people do.

[Brian Downie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took awhile to get thru this short book because each idea made me think and reflect so much, feel like this was good for my heart, spirit and faith to challenge and affirm different ideas

[Howard Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the tremendously troubled times in which we live, I highly recommend this book for its concise, and highly relevant, discussion of Human Nature, the origin and development of Conscience, and the influence of Religion on both.