The Catholic Practice of “Examining Conscience”: Theoretical and Religious-Cultural Aspects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21146/2074-4870-2020-20-1-69-81Keywords:
examining conscience, sacrament of penance, Graeco-Roman practices of self-analysis, moral theology of the Early Modern Times, Jesuits, Spiritual ExercisesAbstract
The confessing one’s grave sins in form of a private or auricular confession, introduced as an obligation by the Catholic Church in the thirteenth century and involved as one of the main requirements a detailed recitation of all the circumstances of sinful acts, resulted in the course of time in wide-spreading of “examen conscientiae” procedure. “Examining of conscience” as a preparation procedure for the sacrament of penance becomes its completed form at the turn of the Early Modern Times, but its roots go back to monastic spiritual exercises, aimed at self-knowledge, self-evaluation, and moral improvement. Unlike the monastic practices, a preparation for the penance was focused primarily on cognition and limitation of one’s sinfulness manifestations in all areas of the life. The early Christians borrowed “examen conscientiae” as a regular self-evaluation from the Greek-Roman philosophical tradition. The given article analyses the roots of this practice and its reinterpretation by Origen (c.184–c.253); typical texts of “examining of conscience” and their modification under the influence of the theoretical understanding of the sacrament of penance in the works of the so-called “high” speculative theology; particularities of the Early Modern “examen conscientiae” (a growing number of areas of life becomes gradually the object of moral evaluation, and typical texts of “examining of conscience” are supplemented by questions, related to professional activities, fulfillment of duties to God, neighbor, and oneself); influence of the rhetoric and mnemonic methods of memory training, as well as of the “Spiritual Exercises” of Ignatius of Loyola on the preparation procedure for the sacrament of penance.