Conscience and post-modernity: discerning in the light of virtue ethics

The starting point is first of all to analyse post-modernity with its implications on moral conscience. The complex post-modern reality leads us to rethink the problem of conscience beyond traditional paradigms, leading us to think of an ethics of virtues that provides a triple challenge: discern, decide and act. To this end, we highlight a panoramic vision of post-modernity with its theoretical and anthropological challenges, generators of a new culture and values that have an impact on integral Christian anthropology. The moral conscience, instance of discernment, decision and action of the human being, feeling these impacts, is called to rethink its deepest structure. To this end, we take a look at the Christian tradition of conscience, highlighting the major biblical, theological and historical themes underlying it. Emphasizing the positive conciliar understanding present in Gaudium et Spes, n. 16, we highlight its concise and cohesive importance for theological-moral reflection. We propose an ethics of virtues looking at ancient ethical paradigms, but focusing on the contemporary subject who lives a crisis of meaning, of history and of acting.