Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern AuthoritiesCallan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Religion
Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities
Callan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Christian ethics -- Catholic authors
(c) scrupulosity must be distinguished from the anxious or doubtful or
guilty conscience, inasmuch as scrupulosity is a baseless fear or
phobia. Examples: A person who has practised injustice for many years,
has good reason to be perturbed in conscience when he reflects that
restitution or reparation is a prerequisite to pardon; but a mother who
did all she could to train her children well, is scrupulous, if she is
constantly reproaching herself that she should have done better. A
person who makes a contract while fearing that it may be unlawful,
because good authorities hold its unlawfulness, acts with a doubtful
conscience; but if he fears that the contract is unlawful, in spite of
the fact that others regard it as lawful and that his only reason for
doubt is that they may be wrong, he is scrupulous. The Egyptians at the
time of the plagues could reasonably forecast grievous chastisements on
account of their wickedness (Wis., xvii. 10); but a good person who
worries constantly over the possibility of being damned must be
scrupulous.
615. Scruples may be divided in various ways, but the simplest division
seems to be by virtue of object, extension and duration. By reason of
object, scruples may center on only one or, at most, a few moral
activities, e.g., duties of charity, or sins against chastity, or they
may embrace the whole moral life of the individual. By reason of
extension, some scruples are limited to interior actions, others extend
to external manifestations. By reason of duration, scruples may be
classified as intermittent, or temporary, and quasi-permanent which is
characteristic of the constitutionally scrupulous person whose physical
and psychical disposition incline him to scrupulosity.
616. The signs or external manifestations of scrupulosity have been
variously divided, but a simplified division into intellectual, or
cognitive, affective, or volitional, and compulsive suffices for our
present purpose.
(a) Intellectual: habitual abulia, i.e., an inability to decide,
coupled with and interacting with constant doubt.
(b) Affective: closely allied to the intellectual state is the feeling
of insufficiency which extends to actions, to the individual’s own
personality, to his desire for higher goals, to his abilities, etc.
This fosters and strengthens the inability to decide. Inordinate fears,
anxieties and sadness contribute to the genesis and growth of the sense
of inadequacy.
(c) Compulsive: numerous compulsion factors are present in more serious
cases of scrupulosity, e.g., obsessions, phobias, and compulsions
properly so called, which concern external actions or rituals.
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