John Henry Newman on Following Your Conscience – Dr. Christopher Mooney

The Thomistic Institute

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy, Christianity, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Christopher Mooney argues that John Henry Newman’s teaching on conscience means conscience is not mere personal preference or social conditioning, but the practical application of divine moral law to particular actions.

This lecture was given on March 9th, 2026, at Ohio State University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Christopher Mooney is an assistant professor of theology at the Augustine Institute Graduate School in St. Louis, Missouri, where he teaches on Catholic theology, scriptural interpretation, and the Church Fathers. His teaching and research specialize in Augustine, the Fathers, and historical theology, and he is the author of Augustine's Theology of Justification by Faith (2026). A native of Connecticut, he studied at Georgetown and Yale Divinity School before receiving his PhD from the University of Notre Dame. He also serves as a theological representative for the USCCB's Catholic-Reformed dialogue. He lives next door to the Augustine Institute's campus with his wife and four children.

Keywords: Authority, Conscience, Divine Law, Eternity, Faith, John Henry Newman, Moral Truth, Particular Cases, Pope, Truth

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tumistic Institute podcast.
0:06.0	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.0	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Tumistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.0	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:21.7	Thomistic Institute.org. I'm very glad to be able to talk about St. John Henry Newman with all of you.
0:28.5	It's a great time to be talking about St. John Henry Newman, because last November, Pope Leo,
0:33.6	our new pope, declared St. John, or elevated St. John Henry Newman to be a doctor of the church,
0:38.6	meaning one of a small group of the most eminent teachers of Catholic thought in the whole
0:43.8	tradition. So joining the ranks as something like Thomas Aquinas, for example. And St. John
0:49.0	Henry Newman is a relatively recent saint. He was canonized in 2019, despite living in the 19th century. I was actually
0:54.9	very pleased to have been at John Henry Newman's canonization in Rome in 2019, which was a really
1:00.2	lovely event. But tonight I'm talking about John Henry Newman on one particular topic, which is
1:07.6	conscience, following your conscience. In a famous 1874 letter to his friend,
1:14.8	the Duke of Norfolk, the English Catholic convert, John Henry Newman, addressed the topic of conscience,
1:21.2	especially in relation to the authority of the Pope. At the conclusion of his treatment of conscience,
1:26.5	Newman wrote, I had one remark,
1:29.0	certainly if I am obliged to bring religion into after-dinner toasts, which indeed does not seem
1:35.0	quite the thing, I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still to conscience first and to the
1:41.4	pope afterwards.
1:43.1	What does this mean to toast first to conscience and second to the
1:47.6	Pope? Why would Newman, now a saint and a renowned teacher of the Catholic faith, put conscience
1:53.3	before the Pope? What exactly is conscience that it is such a great thing? Now, John Henry Newman was
	...

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