A Study of the Status of Character Education in Reference to Religion

The problem of this study is the relation of religion to the development of character. It may be more succinctly and clearly put in the form of a question as follows:|Can there by any real and basic character development without religion? Or is it possible to achieve the highest form of character without the unique contribution of religion? Here we assume the validity of the fact that man is capable of moral as well as mental and physical growth. All of our social institutions for the betterment of humanity are built on that fact as a foundation for all of their undertakings, and we do not need to advance any argument in proof of it here. Neither do we need to prove the expediency and value of developing good character, for that has been established in the social history of the human family. But there is some doubt and uncertainty, as to the relative importance of the respective agencies and methods employed in the business of developing character. Without in any way attempting to minimize the importance of all the other agencies and methods of character education, this study aims to evaluate religion as one of the basic factors in the development of character. The problem then is not merely concerned with the matter of listing religion as one of the many social institutions or organizations that might in some way influence character. All scholars in the field of character education, both those who approach the subject from the standpoint of sociology and those who attack it from the vantage point of psychology, admit that religion in some way influences character, but they differ in their evaluation of this influence, It is our task to evaluate this influence and to show that religion has a unique and vital place in the development of the highest type of character, and without it there can be no well balanced character.