Abstract

The writings of John Henry Newman show him to have been habitually, although unsystematically, a moralist of distinction. The pervasiveness of moral perspective in so much of his work is mainly attributable to the centrality, in both his moral and his religious philosophy, of the idea of conscience. The typically occasional nature of Newman's writings, while admitting numerous highly significant observations about conscience, excluded any systematic treatment of that subject. However, in his seldomread novel, "Callista", Newman did provide, within the framework of a conversion narrative, a uniquely comprehensive account of the role he assigned to conscience in both fundamentally stimulating and persistently uniting religious and moral development towards a culmination that is perfected by Christian faith.