ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 (‘Integral Human Development and Christian Character Education’) continues the search for a notion of ‘integral human development’, which can take place in Christian families and schools and in the Church more widely. ‘Integral’ indicates formation into a whole person of character that is internally consistent, and in a Christian context this is itself integrated into the following of Christ (discipleship). There follows an indication of how the work of the Jubilee Centre around the cardinal virtues, which provide for flourishing in a social context, can be integrated within a broader scheme of Christian virtues, together with its wider context for flourishing. An examination of the types of virtue developed in the Jubilee Centre’s framework is then undertaken under a Christian lens, suggesting ways towards an account of each of these four categories within a specifically Christian context, and concluding with a section on the virtue of Christian Good Sense. The process of teaching these character virtues in Christian schools is then illustrated by concrete examples from the content of a number of Catholic educational programmes, not all of which mention either Aristotle or Aquinas, but which are certainly influenced by their thinking. Such explicit statements of purpose and vision prove more effective in the cultivation of character.
