ABSTRACT
In Britain today we live in a pluralistic society in which our values appear to be constantly changing and in which children are presented with all kinds of models and exposed to all kinds of opinions about right and wrong. As part of this pluralism there are a number of different faith communities with their own schools and their own understanding of the formation of human character, particularly its expression as part of the moral education provided in their schools. These faith schools explicitly recognize moral obligations and incorporate these into their religious traditions and practices. For them, there is a clear and intimate relationship between the character of a person and the religious faith they practise. This belief in God affects the choices they make, the relationships that they forge, the lifestyles they adopt and the attitudes and behaviour they exhibit. In Britain, the main source of these moral practices has been Christianity. Christianity has its own view of the end of human life and its own particular theological categories for filling out the nature of human character. In chapter 2 we saw the historical influence of this tradition in the example of Thomas Arnold and the evangelicals. More recently, as described in chapter 3, Christians and
others have been engaged in the revival of virtue ethics as a possible basis for the moral education of the young.
