Religious Education for Moral Character Development

ABSTRACT

One of the important responsibilities of modern education should be on the moral character development education of the young people. But today’s education system is mostly utilized as a tool for employment purposes, and has lost its main role in the character building process. The objective of the Moral Character Education is to cultivate the desirable personality needed for creating and maintaining a stable society. Traditionally, religious teachings are focused on moral character building process. Therefore, religious education could be used as competent modus in moral character development education. However, for moral character development through religious education, one should be very careful that the teachings should not get focused mainly on mission or purely religious perspectives but on the universal humanistic characteristics. This paper focuses on the study of the educational aspects of the universal elements inherent in the religious culture. Especially, the paper attempts to analyze the significance of moral character education from a phenomenological point of view through religious narrative, self-discipline, ritual, and ethics, which are intrinsic part of the society. It would be meaningful to retrace the persisting and prevailing connotation of traditional moral character education in finding the root for solving the problems of contemporary society. The development of religion in Korea has a unique cultural characteristic with strong religious tendencies. Therefore, it seems viable that the reinstatement of moral character development education through religious education in Korea would contribute in solving the internal social conflicts and providing a new vision to the society.