Session 1
Purpose, Faith, and Character Formation
James Arthur, Director Emeritus of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues
The only way to understand and construct our character virtues is to have a clear picture of what is the purpose and meaning of human life. This talk will highlight the importance of engaging with moral issues and makes the case that, for Christian educators, human flourishing is inseparable from God’s active relationship to human beings. The talk will explore the teleological approach to character education goals. To educate the whole person in the light of an all-embracing Christian worldview is challenged by secular and liberal ideology and is often seen as irrational to the modern mind. I argue the case for the educational potential of Christian character education.
Before the lecture participants may wish to look at Chapter Six of James Arthur’s book – A Christian Education in the Virtues: Character Formation and Human Flourishing
Professor James Arthur is Director Emeritus of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues and was Director between 2012-2023 in the University of Birmingham. James was Head of the School of Education from 2010-2015 and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 2015-2019. He was previously Editor of the British Journal of Educational Studies for ten years and has holds numerous honorary titles and Fellowships in the academe, including Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow, Faculty Affiliate at Harvard University, Senior Fellow of Boston College, Visiting Senior Fellow of the University of Virginia, Visiting Professor at Rome’s Pontifical Angelicum University and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He was also a Senior Fellow of Westpoint Military Academy and became the 15th Distinguished C. J. Koh Professor of the National Institute of Education in Singapore. James was made an Officer of the British Empire by the Queen in 2018 and in 2020 won the internationally prestigious Expanded Reason Award from the Ratzinger Foundation in the Vatican. He has written widely on the relationship between theory and practice in education, particularly the links between character, virtues, flourishing, religion, and education. James chairs the national Society for Educational Studies and has served on many UK governmental education committees, as well as the Step Up to Serve Advisory Council chaired by HRH the Prince of Wales (2013-2020). In 2023 his Centre won the prestigious QS Global Award in Education from 1,200 international entries together with the first ever Ethics in Education Award. He received the 2017 Ferdinande Boxberger Prize in Germany. In December 2024 he received the Sandy McDonald Award, becoming the first non-American to receive it. James advises several international charities, particularly the Kern Family Foundation of which he is Consultant and a Senior Fellow. James graduated with a master’s and doctorate from the University of Oxford and is to receive an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Glasgow for his work in education.