This book review is by my husband, Dave, who loves reading and sharing book recommendations. He recently wrote questions to help our church as we study through this particular book together.
If you are like most Christians, there are some words that you hear a lot—grace, gospel, maybe worship—and some that you probably don’t. It’s the rare believer, at least in the West, who has spent much time in the last month thinking about depravity, or the hypostatic union, or conscience. It’s this last concept that occupies authors Naselli and Crowley, who suggest that this topic is so neglected that a little study can bring tremendous benefits.
A little study, then, is exactly what they present in this slim book, Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ. Their writing is clear and easy to follow, and while they address the teaching of the whole Bible on conscience, the six chapters are short and non-technical. It’s a book accessible to nearly anyone in your small group or Bible study.
Naselli and Crowley have two big goals: to help us understand what the Bible says about our consciences, and to help us think through how we can worship God by putting those truths into practice. Once they’ve nailed down what conscience is—a God-given moral awareness that is deeply personal but also malleable—they take us through all thirty of the New Testament references to conscience in order to refine the definition and highlight three key elements that they’ll spend the rest of the book on.
First, they note that some passages speak of the very human experience of being condemned by our consciences (such as Romans 2:15 or 1Tim 1:19), and how the good news of forgiveness through Jesus means that such condemnation is intended, for believers, to be a thing of the pre-Christian past. Secondly, they deal with the thorny question of the malformed conscience. While the word of God is the only fully reliable conscience-shaper, it’s not the only thing influencing our conscience—not by a long shot. With our cultures, our families, our experiences, our past teaching, and our personalities playing a huge role in our awareness of right and wrong, we can easily be mis-calibrated. All the more need, then, for us to take time to carefully and deliberately adjust our consciences to bring them into line with the truth of God’s word. This is equally important whether we are dialing back a conscience that has been hypersensitized to something that God does not require of his people (which the authors call “subtracting from our conscience”), or whether we’re beginning to take seriously a command of God’s that we didn’t know or had been neglecting (“adding to our conscience”). This section includes several helpful case studies and examples—and an even longer list of potentially contentious issues—to help the reader think through how to make these general principles concrete.
Thirdly and finally, they take two chapters to explore a topic that the Bible treats in detail: differences of conscience between believers. This topic has been a challenge to Christian life since the days of the apostles. In their deepest textual dive, the authors examine Romans 14–15 at length to discover the whole range of possible convictions on a topic, from ungodly legalism and license on the fringes, to the problematic judgmentalism that the apostle Paul deals with, to wise and loving patience, tolerance, and consideration for others. They begin with an application from Romans 14:1–2 that has become dear to my heart: welcome those who disagree with you. Their principles for dealing with differences aid the reader as she sets herself to love her brothers and sisters who differ. They then extend this topic into a more specific reflection on how to deal with brothers and sisters who have different convictions because they have been formed in a different culture that has practiced variations on the values familiar to you. One of the two authors, J.D. Crowley, is an American who has spent much of his life ministering in Cambodia, and this chapter is full of examples from his experience. Drawing from Paul’s cross-cultural ministry between Jewish and Gentile Christians, the authors warn of the dangers to ministry and spiritual health of assuming that our culture and our background have properly calibrated our conscience, and that it’s those other people who need to change their convictions.
It’s here in this last chapter where I wished for more in this book. As a person recently returned to his own home culture of Canada after many years overseas, I have been deeply dismayed at the virulent hostility of the so-called culture wars in North American society. Even worse, the recent pandemic demonstrated that these wars often cut right down the middle of local churches, causing brothers and sisters with differently formed convictions to turn on each other. It’s no surprise that this book doesn’t address these specifically (it was published in 2016), so we as readers ought to take the principles in this book and make applications for our current situations.
I think it’s worth pointing out that most of us will have only limited exposure to foreign cultures, but that all of us have regular exposure to other cultures: political left and right, blue collar and white collar, Gen-Z and Boomers, and the regional differences present in every country. It’s a point worth making—each of these has its own culturally formed conscience, and none is formed perfectly. All of us need to approach one another with patience, humility, and love.
Naselli and Crowley’s book Conscience is a highly recommended book: a timely and thorough meditation on an important topic; detailed enough to be helpful, and accessible enough to reach most readers. The blessings it helps to realize—a clean conscience, patient love toward others, and confidence in our convictions—are well worth the read.
“In this much-needed book, a New Testament scholar and a cross-cultural missionary explore all thirty passages in the New Testament that deal with the conscience, showing how your conscience impacts virtually every aspect of life, ministry, and missions. As you come to see your conscience as a gift from God and learn how to calibrate it under the lordship of Jesus Christ, you will not only experience the freedom of a clear conscience but also discover how to lovingly interact with those who hold different convictions.” (Amazon description)
Other books by Naselli or Crowley
“Scholar and author Andrew David Naselli traces Paul’s argument for the gospel throughout this concise and accessible guide to the book of Romans. Designed to be read alongside the epistle itself, it provides accessible, standalone commentary unpacking the text verse by verse. This volume dives into the key themes of righteousness, peace, and God’s promises, accompanied by reflection questions on interpretation and application.” (Amazon description)
“This comprehensive, conversational book is for anyone who wants to understand and apply the Bible and the New Testament in particular in a responsible, well-informed, and God-glorifying way. Naselli is an able guide, walking readers through a carefully field-tested twelve-stage interpretive process that pastors, scholars, teachers, and laypeople can use with benefit.” (Amazon description)
“In this much-needed book, a New Testament scholar and a cross-cultural missionary explore all thirty passages in the New Testament that deal with the conscience, showing how your conscience impacts virtually every aspect of life, ministry, and missions. As you come to see your conscience as a gift from God and learn how to calibrate it under the lordship of Jesus Christ, you will not only experience the freedom of a clear conscience but also discover how to lovingly interact with those who hold different convictions.” (Amazon description)
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