ABSTRACT
The faith development theory conceptually and empirically offers a way of broadening Lawrence Kohlberg's account of moral development. The chapter suggests that each moral judgment stage implies and requires anchorage in a more extensive framework of belief and value. It examines the research of Mischey and Power which corroborates and extends the claim. The stage theory attempts to describe this sequence of structural approaches to the forming and maintenance of faith visions in formal, non-content-specific terms. Kohlberg has aimed instead to restore that dimension of the natural law tradition which affirms that there is a rational core to moral decision making and action, and that this rational core is universal. Further, he has had a passionate commitment to the development of an approach to moral education which avoids dependence upon specific religious or ideological traditions which could not meet the constitutional requirements regarding separation of church and state.
