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Examination of conscience
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<h2 id="christianity">Christianity</h2> <p>Examination of conscience was commanded by the Apostle <a href="/facts/Paul_of_Tarsus/mIAFgUw7">St. Paul</a> to be performed by the faithful each time they received <a href="/facts/Holy_Communion/us3hB9zL">Holy Communion</a>: "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.... For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." (<a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=1%20Corinthians%2011:28–31&version=nrsv">1 Corinthians 11:28–31</a>, <a href="/facts/KJV/FdS5n0lX">KJV</a>). And, as the early Christians received Holy Communion very frequently, examination of conscience became a familiar exercise of their spiritual lives. In many cases, this became a daily practice of the lives of early members of the clergy and those living a monastic life, such as the hermit <a href="/facts/Anthony_the_Great/1DmV5699">St. Anthony</a>, who was said to have examined his conscience every night, while St. <a href="/facts/Basil_of_Caesarea/tffKyDfg">Basil of Caesarea</a>, St. <a href="/facts/Augustine_of_Hippo/RJI1otNA">Augustine of Hippo</a>, St. <a href="/facts/Bernard_of_Clairvaux/uRGcK49Q">Bernard of Clairvaux</a>, and founders of religious orders generally made the examination of conscience a regular daily exercise of their followers. Lay members of congregations were encouraged to take up the practice as a salutary measure to advance in virtue.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> St. Bernard had taught: "As a searching investigator of the integrity of your own conduct, submit your life to a daily examination. Consider carefully what progress you have made or what ground you have lost. Strive to know yourself. Place all your faults before your eyes. Come face to face with yourself, as though you were another person, and then weep for your faults."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p> <p>St. Ignatius of Loyola described a five-point devotional examination method in his 1524 work <i><a href="/facts/Spiritual_Exercises/qNnLlCK0">Spiritual Exercises</a></i>. In the first point, followers thank God for the benefits received; in the second, they ask grace to know and correct their faults; in the third, they pass in review the successive hours of the day, noting what faults they have committed in deed, word, thought, or omission; in the fourth, they ask God's pardon; in the fifth, they consider amendment.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p><p>The devotional examination of conscience is distinct from that required as a proximate preparation for the <a href="/facts/Sacrament_of_Reconciliation/CMlqwBPc">Sacrament of Reconciliation</a> which is intended specifically to identify all sins requiring repentance. Various more elaborate methods might be used in the examination for confession, using the Ten Commandments of God, the Commandments of the Church, the Seven Capital Sins, the duties of one's state of life, the nine ways of partaking in the sin of others.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="autocritique">Autocritique</h2> <p>Among secular intellectuals, particularly <a href="/facts/Marxists/sgnnLfax">Marxists</a>, the term <i>autocritique</i>, borrowed from the French, is used. This is particularly applied to a public "methodological attempt to step away from themselves through a process of self-objectification," and was popular in France following the <a href="/facts/Algerian_War/5VAQbI3y">Algerian War</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> <a href="/facts/Edgar_Morin/Den8aGt4">Edgar Morin</a>'s questioning of his own motives as a defender of Algeria popularised the term; other well-known examples include <a href="/facts/Jawaharlal_Nehru/et3I8NGT">Jawaharlal Nehru</a>'s anonymous dissection of his own personality and drive in the <a href="/facts/Modern_Review_(Calcutta)/uE7H89qh">Modern Review</a>. </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"HAERENT ANIMO". www.papalencyclicals.net. 4 August 1908. 4. Retrieved 2017-05-19. <a href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10haer.htm" target="_blank">http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10haer.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Consciousness Examen by George Aschenbrenner, SJ - IgnatianSpirituality.com". Ignatian Spirituality. Retrieved 2017-05-19. <a href="http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/consciousness-examen" target="_blank">http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/consciousness-examen</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"A SIMPLE WAY". marriageretreats.webs.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-06. Retrieved 2017-05-19. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160906145320/http://marriageretreats.webs.com/exercises/Daily%20Examination%20of%20Consciousness.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160906145320/http://marriageretreats.webs.com/exercises/Daily%20Examination%20of%20Consciousness.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Prayerfully Reviewing Your Day: Daily Examen". www.loyolapress.com. Retrieved 2017-05-19. <a href="http://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/prayer/personal-prayer-life/different-ways-to-pray/prayerfully-reviewing-your-day-daily-examen" target="_blank">http://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/prayer/personal-prayer-life/different-ways-to-pray/prayerfully-reviewing-your-day-daily-examen</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>These forms of the Examination are presented in the chapter "The method and the First Exercise: existential experience of the history of salvation" Archived 2017-04-14 at the Wayback Machine of the Spiritual Exercises for Married Couples: Finding Our Way Together with St. Ignatius Archived 2009-08-04 at the Wayback Machine - Manual for the Retreat <a href="http://marriageretreats.webs.com/Manual/firstbeginning.htm" target="_blank">http://marriageretreats.webs.com/Manual/firstbeginning.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Cf. in the online text of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Archived 2012-06-19 at the Wayback Machine <a href="http://www.nwjesuits.org/JesuitSpirituality/SpiritualExercises.html" target="_blank">http://www.nwjesuits.org/JesuitSpirituality/SpiritualExercises.html</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Coppens, Charles (1909). "Examination of Conscience". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company. <a href="/wiki/Public_domain" target="_blank">/wiki/Public_domain</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Meditationes piissimae, c. V, de Quotid. sui ipsius exam <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Coppens, Charles (1909). "Examination of Conscience". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company. <a href="/wiki/Public_domain" target="_blank">/wiki/Public_domain</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Coppens, Charles (1909). "Examination of Conscience". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company. <a href="/wiki/Public_domain" target="_blank">/wiki/Public_domain</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Le Sueur, James D.; Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics During the Decolonization, University of Pennsylvania press, 2001 <a href="/wiki/University_of_Pennsylvania" target="_blank">/wiki/University_of_Pennsylvania</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>