Conscience and Its Enemies

Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism by Robert P George, 260 pages

In Conscience and Its Enemies, Princeton professor Robert George has several aims.  He contests the liberal consensus by demonstrating that there are reasonable arguments that can be made for the conservative positions on such issues as abortion and gay marriage.  He also seeks to convince economic and social conservatives that their aims coincide - that a more socially conservative culture would remove many of the justifications for big government, and that governmental intrusion into the social sphere is corrosive of the values treasured by social conservatives.  Finally, he defends the right of conscientious dissent in an environment where the ideal of tolerance increasingly demands ideological conformity.

The book is clearly written and carefully reasoned.  George engages seriously with opposing viewpoints, revealing that the differences often begin with the unexamined premises of the opposing camps.  In the tradition of thinkers such as John Courtney Murray, he expounds the importance of freedom of conscience in society - not the freedom to do as we please, but rather the freedom to do what we believe is right, even when it is unpleasant - against the "dictatorship of relativism".

The book is marred by the fact that the last quarter consists of unrelated, previously published profiles of notable individuals.  The profiles were well-written and interesting on their own, but the thematic disconnect highlighted their nature as filler and detracted from the rest of the book.