Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

What Is Conscience?, A. W. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Luther does not offer a clear-cut theoretical definition of conscience, but he speaks very perspicuously on the functions of conscience, and we shall take occasion to quote him repeatedly. Hauff, in his Real- konkordanz, calls conscience "das deutliche Bewusstsein von der sittlichen Guete unserer Gcsinnungen und Handlungcn, den inneren Richter, den jeder im Busen traegt" Standard Dictionary: "Conscience is the activity or faculty by which distinctions are made between the right and wrong in conduct and character." The Schaff- Herzog Encyclopedia defines conscience as "the moral sense of the individual applied to his own conduct."