Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience Binary

In _Dust in the Blood_, Jessica Coblentz notes the insufficiency of theodical approaches to theology to account for depressive suffering. Instead, she proposes a theology of depression that makes use of narrative-phenomenological portraits and draws new insights on what Christian discipleship means...

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Main Author: Catherine Yanko
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Journal of Moral Theology, Inc. 2025-01-01
Series:Journal of Moral Theology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.55476/001c.127971
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author Catherine Yanko
author_facet Catherine Yanko
author_sort Catherine Yanko
collection DOAJ
description In _Dust in the Blood_, Jessica Coblentz notes the insufficiency of theodical approaches to theology to account for depressive suffering. Instead, she proposes a theology of depression that makes use of narrative-phenomenological portraits and draws new insights on what Christian discipleship means in the context of depressive suffering. In this article, I employ Coblentz’s framework to interrogate another area of contemporary theology. Debates about the moral authority of conscience are largely unresolved. In order to confront some points of intractable disagreement in these debates and consider a way beyond them, I study firsthand experiences of moral injury. Jonathan Shay defined moral injury as “a betrayal of what’s right by someone who holds legitimate authority in a high stakes situation.” From patterns in firsthand experiences of moral injury, I propose a respective understanding of conscience. I argue that this understanding of conscience can direct theologians beyond impasses in Catholic moral theology.
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publisher The Journal of Moral Theology, Inc.
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spelling doaj-art-8a2b3f3b3ca34112813bcbda4e2f0da02025-01-03T02:17:25ZengThe Journal of Moral Theology, Inc.Journal of Moral Theology2166-28512166-21182025-01-01141Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience BinaryCatherine YankoIn _Dust in the Blood_, Jessica Coblentz notes the insufficiency of theodical approaches to theology to account for depressive suffering. Instead, she proposes a theology of depression that makes use of narrative-phenomenological portraits and draws new insights on what Christian discipleship means in the context of depressive suffering. In this article, I employ Coblentz’s framework to interrogate another area of contemporary theology. Debates about the moral authority of conscience are largely unresolved. In order to confront some points of intractable disagreement in these debates and consider a way beyond them, I study firsthand experiences of moral injury. Jonathan Shay defined moral injury as “a betrayal of what’s right by someone who holds legitimate authority in a high stakes situation.” From patterns in firsthand experiences of moral injury, I propose a respective understanding of conscience. I argue that this understanding of conscience can direct theologians beyond impasses in Catholic moral theology.https://doi.org/10.55476/001c.127971
spellingShingle Catherine Yanko
Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience Binary
Journal of Moral Theology
title Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience Binary
title_full Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience Binary
title_fullStr Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience Binary
title_full_unstemmed Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience Binary
title_short Investigating Moral Injury: Thinking Beyond the Law-Conscience Binary
title_sort investigating moral injury thinking beyond the law conscience binary
url https://doi.org/10.55476/001c.127971
work_keys_str_mv AT catherineyanko investigatingmoralinjurythinkingbeyondthelawconsciencebinary