Morality in church and society is a burning issue. Church leaders know that the challenges areboth formidable and urgent, yet finding solutions is easier said than done. The question thisarticle asks is how can we educate for character? In the past, deontology or rule ethics reignedsupreme, virtue ethics, however, gradually made a comeback. Currently virtue ethics is animportant part of character education in the United States of America, especially with schoolsaffiliated with churches. Recent insights provided by researchers focusing on cognitive science(working from the vantage point of cognitive and social psychology) have managed to provethe legitimacy of virtue ethics but remind us that virtues must not be drilled into children;moral deliberation and imagination must be fostered in order to cultivate individuals withmoral character that will be able to reflect on their own received tradition. I provide an exampleof such a method of education when I explain Integrative Ethical Education as formulated byDarcia Narvaez.INTRADISCIPLINARY AND/OR INTERDISCIPLINARY IMPLICATIONS : This article confirms the validityof virtue ethics but calls for a change in the standard method of character education thatexclusively emphasises knowledge of the Bible and strict obedience to the morals that thelocal community derives from the Bible, to an approach that also encourages teachers to helpfoster independent thinkers neither lacking in character nor the ability to reflect critically ontheir own tradition. I do believe that such a change is possible as was recently shown bythe implementation of Darcia Narvaez’s Integrative Ethical Education in the United States ofAmerica.
展开▼
