A School for Conscience
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others become constricted by petty identities and blocked by social proc-esses. When this happens there is the deadly risk of dehumanizing others and thereby unwittingly opening the possibility of unconstrained violence. The answer to that problem is not to try to seek some neutral standpoint as if
one can leap out of those forces which have shaped what and who one is. The challenge is to make space within social life about identities for the sake of the integrity of common life. In situations of Within social life, one task of conscience is to make decisions of priority for the labor of conscience.
social conflict, identities that indicate shared claim to priority as the condition both for cooperative action and to delimit acts that dehumanize the other. Of course, the relevant commonality can shift. Among Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda what was needed was the commo-commonality with others have a
nality of shared humanity rather than identities imposed by colonial powers. In the clashes among Christians and Muslims around the world what is needed is (say) the commonality of monotheistic faith. Other identities one happens to have (Tutsi or Sunni or Protestant) must then, in that situation,
be made supportive of commonality. No one is asked to give up his or her particular identities; particular beliefs and values do not need to be validated all at once. What is required is some flexibility, some freedom, to make decisions in specific situations with respect to a commitment to the integrity
of life. That commitment means an openness to have one’s identities changed towards a good beyond one’s present form of life. Interactions with others is the school of conscience for the formation of identities.Theological humanism entails two further things especially important in
the relation of the political order and religious communities. One is the rule of law. Just laws are meant to block social processes that distort or stunt con-science. Social conflict can only be resolved if there are non-coercive means to settle conflict fairly and justly, and, additionally, the fair and equal treat-
ment of all members of a community. The specifics of a legal and judicial system are of course beyond the scope of this book. Yet, from this perspective, a legal system is just and legitimate if it embodies the workings of conscience in the realm of social life. A legal system despite its complexity must aim at
the integrity of social life and enable the mechanisms for resolving conflict without dehumanization by free decisions about priorities in identity.means, additionally, that the coercive or retributive use of law, and so the police function of the State, is only warranted and just when it seeks the restoration (^20) This
of social integrity as the rightful balance within the body politic of people’s identities and flourishing social life.wars might indeed be just, they are so only as a last resort, when aggression is The same would be true in relations among political powers. While some