I will consider conscientia in Augustine as related to his notion of
capax Dei, the human capacity to ‘connect’ to God and be saved. I will
concentrate on the Adnotationes in Iob, where Augustine mentions ‘the
peace human beings enjoy in their conscience with the remission of sin
due to grace’ and on In Iohannis Evangelium tractatus, where Augustine
touches upon ‘the happiness of humans who have God in their conscience
as others have gold in their coffers’, ‘the human conscience set in
motion’ [by grace], love (caritas) that comes ‘from a pure heart, a good
conscience and an unfeigned faith’ (I Tim. 1.5) (idea also brought up
in De Trinitate), and ‘conscience in the presence of God’ (coram deo). I
will not neglect the mainstream discussions of Augustine’s conscientia
as related to the intellect and to knowledge as illumination (especially
with referrence to De magistro, the Confessiones and the Enchiridion)
and their relationship to similar discussions on capax Dei/ imago Dei,
but I will refer primarily to the emotional/ volitional aspects. For
instance, in his In Iohannis Evangelium tractatus, Augustine associates
conscience with the heart (conscientia cordis) and so does he in
De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus. These suggestions fit
Augustine’s referrences (also in emotional/volitional terms) to the
human ‘capacity for beatitude’ (beatitudinis capax), the ‘capacity for
the supreme nature’ (summae naturae capax) [that is for God] (De
Trinitate), or the ‘capacity for the divine realm’ (capax regni Dei)
(Enarrationes in Psalmos).
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