I'm reading Chapter Nineteen: "Narrative and the Moral Education of the Christian Child" by Victoria M. Ford and Ester Wong. I'm enjoying the chapter but there's an underlying assumption that I find challenging. Thirty years ago I would have said, "Of course this is true." But it jumped out at me today and I'm wrestling with it.
"Narrative education is an important tool for the moral development of children, which is the main goal of religious education in general." (CS p. 314)
God does require we train up our children "in the way they should go" (I'm not disputing that) but is "moral development" (learning right from wrong) the main goal of Christian education? Was moral education God's objective when He sent Jesus to wander ancient Israel telling stories, interacting with people, and to ultimately lay down His life? People called Him "Teacher," and indeed He was. What was He teaching?
I guess I never really thought about it before. What do you think?
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So, we were talking about good and evil and morality and my husband's challenge to me is this:
ReplyDeleteIs that what moral development is - Learning right from wrong? sigh...
And the story of the Good Samaritan is probably a good example of a parable demonstrating "right" and "wrong" but I'm not sure that all of Jesus' strories are like that.