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Christian Religious Education and The Development of Moral Virtues - A Neo-Thomistic Approach
Christian Religious Education and The Development of Moral Virtues - A Neo-Thomistic Approach
Christian Religious Education and The Development of Moral Virtues - A Neo-Thomistic Approach
Jarosław Horowski
To cite this article: Jarosław Horowski (2020) Christian religious education and the
development of moral virtues: a neo-Thomistic approach, British Journal of Religious
Education, 42:4, 447-458, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2020.1752618
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This article explores the implications for Christian religious education of Moral virtues; cardinal
the theory of moral virtues formulated by Thomas Aquinas and developed virtues; Christian religious
by the contemporary Neo-Thomists. The analysis is divided into two parts. education; neo-Thomistic
theory; Poland
The first part introduces Thomistic virtue theory and presents cardinal
virtues crucial for Thomistic ethics: prudence, justice, temperance and
fortitude, as the reference points for moral education. This part also
includes analysis of the relationship between cardinal and theological
virtues, leading to the conclusion that Christian religious education also
requires the development of theological virtues. The second part explores,
through Thomistic theory, what factors condition the development of
a person’s moral character (i.e. his/her moral virtues) and what those
factors mean for supporting moral education within Christian religious
education, initially within the context of Polish schooling. Particular atten-
tion is given to three issues: introducing the concept of responsibility for
community members, introducing knowledge of moral virtues, and build-
ing a relationship with God.
Introduction
The analysis undertaken in the present article aims at answering the question of the potential of
Christian religious education within the scope of supporting young people’s moral virtue develop-
ment. This relates to significant issues concerning – firstly – the process of supporting young
people’s moral character development and – secondly – the role played by (Christian) religious
education in that process. Education includes students gaining knowledge of the surrounding world,
moral aspects of their actions and their religious conditions. Religious education generally provides
knowledge regarding different religions, paying particular attention to the dominant denominations
in a given society, and shows the relationship between religion and morality. Secularisation and the
principle of tolerance for people of different religions, denominations and non-believers participat-
ing in religious classes (Franken and Loobuyck 2017) mean that there is a reluctance for religious
education to induct children into a particular religion. In Poland, despite the fact that religious
education is taught by representatives of a given religious community, it does not in practice include
initiation into religious life, for example into prayer or liturgy, but typically involves a transmission of
information alone (Tomasik 1998; Chałupniak 2012). The specificity of the Polish context includes the
tendency of many parents to leave religious development of their children to the school, rather than
the home or church. Considering the significant connections between religion and morals, namely
between persons’ faith and their moral choices, the question arises as to how well Christian religious
education that is implemented in such a way can support the moral development of the individuals.
On the one hand, it is easy to maintain that a privileged place for supporting the development of
moral character is the family or religious community, for example a parish, rather than the school, so
in school there is no need for moral education based on the faith of the individuals. On the other
hand, school is where maturing people first encounter persons not belonging to their families or the
local communities who are befriended by the families. In school, children have to cooperate with
people from different cultural and religious backgrounds. The period of school education conse-
quently becomes the time in which moral virtues, crucial for further functioning in public space and
occupational roles, are developed in maturing persons. The relationships with schoolmates are often
where the germ of moral virtues and vices begins to take shape. May (Christian) religious education
support an individual in this area of development, and to what extent? Does the school, caring about
maintaining worldview neutrality, lose the chance to support the moral development of individuals
by preferring a particular form of Christian religious education that ignores the connection between
the moral development and individual’s faith?
For this analysis, the key category is ‘virtue’ and its associated theory, as formulated within neo-
Thomistic philosophy. The practice of using the category of virtue to conduct an ethical reflection,
examine moral development from the perspective of theory, and formulate concepts of moral
education has a rich history, since its roots can be traced back to ancient philosophy and to the
works of Plato and Aristotle (Wren 2014). Unlike other ethical traditions, such as deontology and
utilitarianism, in which attention is given to the target of particular individuals’ decision, in virtue
ethics an account is made from the target to agents (Hursthouse and Pettigrove 2018) and to
character traits which, in a moral dimension, adjust themselves in relation to other people – positive
traits being diligence, charity, understanding and patience, and negative ones being laziness, self-
ishness, arrogance or cowardice. Consequently, virtue theory offers a great opportunity to analyse
specific dispositions and moral decisions, as well as to observe moral development and its socialisa-
tion and educational conditions. It also facilitates an understanding of the dissonance between
individuals’ theoretical recognition of what is morally good or bad, and the decisions made by them,
which indicates that moral decisions are influenced not only by the ability to assess what is good or
bad, what should be done and what should be avoided, but also by the ability to refrain from small or
big indulgences for the sake of the greater good, as well as patience in confronting hardships that
individuals may encounter in the pursuit of good.
In philosophical reflection in the 17th and 18th centuries, the category of virtue was somewhat
marginalised, but since the end of the 19th century, it has experienced a renaissance in philosophical
thought. This is associated with the intensive development of empirical sciences, psychology and
sociology, in which it is frequently asked what stable feature do the attitudes of individuals towards
other people and the external world have. In this context, the theory of virtues as moral traits
gradually became a bridge between the fields of ethics and empirical sciences (Carr 1991; Steutel
and Carr 1999; Curren 2015; Szutta 2015a; Snow 2016). The representatives of neo-Thomistic
philosophy were the first to refer to the category of virtue. This school in the field of philosophy
has been developed intensively since the end of the 19th century in Catholic circles, not least
because it was seen within it as a channel for dialogue between natural science and matters of faith
(Gilson 1971). As an integral part of philosophy, the category of virtue became fundamental not only
to ethics but also to pedagogy (Kunowski 1966). Through the perspective of virtue, efforts were
made to build a Catholic theory of moral education. One can trace the level of progress of these
efforts in the works of Joseph Mausbach (1920, 1925), a professor at the University of Münster in
Germany, or of Jacek Woroniecki, one of the founders of the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland
(Woroniecki 1922; Horowski 2015, 78–82). In the Anglo-Saxon philosophical tradition, the revival of
reflection on virtue is associated with Elizabeth Anscombe and her 1958 text entitled Modern Moral
Philosophy, in which she criticised the prevailing ethical theories of the 20th century and explored
their weaknesses and deficiencies; what is more, she made a plea for a return to Aristotelian ethical
thought (Anscombe 1958; Szutta 2015b, 14). One of the best-known projects concerning virtue
ethics, which is based on Aristotle’s own reflections, was proposed by Alasdair MacIntyre in his book
BRITISH JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 449
After Virtue. A Study in Moral Theory (2007). Also within this trend, virtue theory finds application in
pedagogical thought (Arthur et al. 2016; Carr 1991, 1996, 2017; Eaude 2016; Kristjánsson 2015;
Kaźmierczak 2019).
The reference to neo-Thomistic philosophy is related to the emphasis that it places on the real
conditions of humans actions (Krąpiec 1999). It draws attention to how real people ― amongst
whom individuals live and whom the individuals try to care for ― condition the decisions made by
them and, consequently, the development of their character traits. Neo-Thomistic thought also
examines the reality of the subjects who, when making decisions about dealing with another person,
take into account their abilities and the impact of various decisions on themselves. The use of other
philosophical positions for analyses, such as phenomenology or hermeneutics, means shifting the
point of interest from actual reality to the subjects’ consciousness, i.e. a subjective image of reality. By
transferring this specificity to the pedagogical field, one can argue that Thomistic thought refers to
and tries to analyse the significance of real conditionings of individuals’ experiences for their moral
development, while the domain of other philosophical concepts within the philosophy of education
is the reflection on subjective aspects of experience and building the image of the world (including
knowledge of what is morally right or wrong) of individuals. The specificity of Thomism is reflected in
its potential but also in its weaknesses in analysing and explaining educational reality. On the one
hand, within its scope it is possible to show the importance of external reality, as perceived by the
senses, to the process of development of individuals; on the other hand, since Thomism does not
penetrate into consciousness conditionings, this school does not analyse or explain all the develop-
ment conditions of the individuals. Bernard Lonergan attempted to overcome this weakness of
Thomistic thought in the field of pedagogy by developing a philosophy of education that was built
on the Thomistic theory of knowledge and included processes of judging that are strongly con-
nected with sensory experience and reasoning ― a specifically intellectual activity. The specificity of
his approach in relation to Jacques Maritain’s philosophy was highlighted by Mario D’Souza (2016).
However, it does not change the fact that the specificity of Thomistic thought in the field of
pedagogy is based on referring mainly to the real conditionings of human development and
building an education concept that uses those conditionings as a basis.
The approach to the research problem outlined above means that in this case Thomism is treated
as an interpretative key and an analytical philosophy that builds the basis for understanding reality of
Christian religious education, but does not claim the right to build comprehensive visions of the
world (Bocheński 1962), and even less so to justify or support any model of social relations (i.e. to act
in favour of a specific civilisation ― Christian, liberal or dialogical) (Luby 2019). These analyses are
only an attempt to use neo-Thomistic philosophy, and especially the theory of moral virtues
formulated within it, to ascertain what conditionings the moral development of an individual and
what that means for moral education provided within religious, especially Christian, education. An
attempt to answer these questions will be made in the second part of the text. The first part will
present a brief description of the Thomistic theory of moral virtues, which also incorporates the issue
of special challenges that are faced by Christians.
life: social and individual (MacIntyre 2007). The first context is created by culture which prevails in
a given moment. The second one, depends on the aims and ways of life chosen by a person. Doctors
need certain virtues, while teachers need different ones and fire-fighters different ones again. His
theory might be regarded as the one which relativises virtues (Carr 2017).
The point of reference for these analyses is the standpoint taken by Thomas Aquinas and the
20th-century neo-Thomists. Thomas Aquinas built his virtue theory on the foundation of four virtues,
outlined in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (1990) as the essential ones: prudence, justice, temperance
and fortitude (Aquinas Thomas, 1485 [1947]; Pieper 1966; Mróz 2001; Keenan 2016). Therefore,
Thomas Aquinas initially formulated the theory of basic, cardinal virtues, whereas MacIntyre’s
reflection moved the analyses immediately to the level of detailed virtues. Essential, cardinal virtues
are related to four powers distinguished in Thomistic anthropology and the theory of human activity.
It would be a good idea to take a closer look at this theory so as to understand the concept of virtues
as capabilities which improve human activity. Thomas Aquinas regards man as an intelligent being.
He therefore considers that each action starts with a decision taken by spiritual powers: the intellect
and the will. The intellect recognises the truth, while the will desires the good. According to him, it is
impossible that a good action is the result of merely one of the powers (STh I–II, q. 14, a. 1, ad 1). In
order to do good, it is not enough to learn the truth about it. There are people who know what is
good and what should be done in a particular situation and yet, they do not do so, since it is of no
importance for them or they are not able to resist the temptation of some pleasures. On the other
hand, the desire for good which is not navigated by the intellect is blind. An action of a person who
seeks good but has recognised the way to its achievement improperly, will end in failure. In order to
do good, a perfection of the intellect recognising the truth (prudence – STh I–II, q. 57, a. 4; II–II, q. 47)
and a perfection of the will seeking good (justice – STh II, q. 58) are needed simultaneously. Likewise,
Thomistic belief does not depreciate emotions, being the agitations of sensual powers, which are
generated either by pleasant goods or by things that might cause unpleasant feeling (STh I–II, q. 59).
A necessary condition for doing good is the capacity for reasonable management of emotions so
that, on the one hand, a person (in particular situations) does not succumb to the desire of sensual
pleasures (temperance – STh II, q. 141) and on the other hand, does not refrain from difficult
challenges, especially when the journey towards the good involves suffering (fortitude – STh II–II,
q. 123). Cardinal virtues are, in other words, the perfections of the intellect, the will and the sensual
powers, thanks to which a specific person discovers the path of good in the complicated circum-
stances of daily life more efficiently, quickly, easily and finally, follows this path.
In Thomistic theory, any other ability might be called a virtue as long as it is built on the
foundation of four cardinal virtues. Referring to an example of diligence, this affair will be discussed
more deeply. This virtue may be regarded as an excellence of an activity oscillating between the
extremities of indolence and workaholism. In any event, the boundary between these very extre-
mities will run somewhere else. Persons who do not have their own family might devote consider-
ably more time to work than persons responsible for a spouse, bringing up children or taking care of
sick parents. The virtue of diligence could take a different form when people are able to easily earn
their own keep and that of their families, and another form, when food acquisition for themselves
and their children would be feasible merely as a result of hard and time-consuming work. In order to
define properly the amount of time and strength that should be devoted to work, the virtue of
prudence is needed. In turn, the virtue of justice is a condition for proper division of time and
strength, which means that agents do not scorn anyone’s good: their own, their families’, their
employers’ and those who make use of the effects of their work. This virtue does not consist so much
in the ability of the assessment of whom to devote time and strength and how much (it is a virtue of
prudence), but in the desire for giving everyone as much as they should get. Temperance is
a condition for diligence as well; nevertheless, it might take a different form. It might involve the
renunciation of goods which would be achievable provided that individuals worked a lot (forgoing
the time devoted to the families) or it may involve renouncing pleasures that might be enjoyed if
they did not go to work. The last cardinal virtue is fortitude. It is not solely a matter of accepting
BRITISH JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 451
tough challenges. The manifestation of fortitude is also a daily struggle against hardships, oppres-
sion, fatigue, and the awareness of the effects a particular work exerts on specific organisms.
The example provided above leads to two conclusions. First of all, it shows that in Thomistic
theory, the virtue is not a kind of trait that sets a regular tone for one’s action (it is not an automatic
habit), but an ability that makes a reasonable management of one’s own action easier (Austin 2017).
The second conclusion is associated with the unity of cardinal virtues. Despite the fact that they are
distinguished, they essentially form a single unit (Szutta 2010). In other words, either they develop
evenly or a given agent does not have anyone. For example, persons cannot be assessed as prudent
when, instead of aiming at doing good for themselves and their families, they indulges themselves
due to lack of temperance (Horowski 2019a).
When speaking of Christian morality, it should be noted that it is inspired by specific challenges,
like the call to love thine enemy (Mt 5:44) or a call to forgive up to seventy-seven times (Mt 18:22). At
first glance, accepting these challenges is acting in defiance of cardinal virtues and is not feasible.
Referring to the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11–32), one could either notice that being virtuous
means taking into account not only the well-being of themselves, but considering third party’s well-
being as well. The forgiveness by the older brother is prudent and just because of the good of the
father who could receive what belongs to him by right, that is, the son. Furthermore the Parable
shows that major challenges, like forgiving someone (in particular a stranger) for injustice or giving
enemies help, need a particular point of reference since morality is of purposeful character (Maritain
1990). If the older son is to forgive his brother, only love for the father who loves the prodigal son
might persuade him to do so. Therefore, forgiving harm or concern for an enemy is possible if an
agent sees those people from God’s perspective (Horowski 2017). As a consequence, moral virtues
could reach a level that make it possible to accept specific challenges for a Christian only when
a man, facing moral dilemmas, has a relationship with God. The relationship is, in turn, reinforced
with theological virtues: faith as a perfection of the intellect knowing God as well as hope and charity
as perfections of the will desiring God (Mróz 2001; Conrad 2017). At this point, one arrives at the
significant change that was introduced to Aristotle’s virtue theory by Thomas Aquinas. Not only did
he make God the point of reference for virtues, but he also considered theological virtues – faith,
hope and charity – as pivotal ones for morality (Pinsent 2015; Roberts 2017).
In summary, it might be stated that, following the suggestions of Thomas Aquinas and contem-
porary neo-Thomists, both cardinal and theological virtues are the key virtues for Christian morality.
The achievement of excellence in prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude is the condition for
a deliberate action with the purpose of the well-being of the people who will see the effects of this
action. On the other hand, theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are, in a certain sense, given
as a condition for regarding God as a person who constitutes a point of reference for accepting
specifically Christian challenges and that may, thereby, prompt such difficult decisions (STh I–II, q. 63;
Maritain 1967, 131; Keenan 2016, 198–199; Conrad 2017) as forgiveness or concern for enemies.
moral education as an element of religious education, as religious education of all kinds should
consider the moral development of young people learning about religion.
establish relationships with cultural/religious strangers, invite them to play, or alternatively ignore
them and deepen their isolation/rejection. The decision to overcome stereotypes is always accom-
panied by the danger of being misunderstood by friends, and consequently experiencing isolation.
Therefore, the virtue of courage is needed to establish a relationship with someone who is margin-
alised. Repeating similar decisions on a daily basis leads to the formation of specific character traits:
justice, temperance and courage, or alternatively injustice, the pursuit of pleasure without heeding
the welfare of others, and fearful conformism. Therefore, not only is a learning community created at
school, but also a community that constitutes the context of moral development. A school creates
a space for the germination and development of traits that in the future will determine the
individual’s adoption of specific attitudes in public life. One might say that the time of school
education always leads a person to the development of some character traits. However, it does
not mean that each trait can always be called a virtue. At times, this functioning leads to the
development of vice in the moral character of a student.
It can be concluded from the above reflection that school education in its moral aspect should be
understood more broadly than information transfer. Teachers must also look at their roles more
broadly and deeply. If school education is to lead to virtue development, form teachers’ challenge at
school is a deliberate incorporation of maturing people into a school community life (Horowski
2019b, 106) in such a way as to face moral dilemmas, seek solutions which would be – in their
opinion – just, and learn to forgo simple pleasures, by taking actions with the objective aimed at the
goodness of other community members. One may say, following Aristotle, that education is a kind of
certain policy whose art should be seized by teachers (Vogler 2017).
Teachers may also ― sometimes unconsciously ― not take advantage of opportunities to
support moral virtue development, or may contribute through their actions to the development of
moral vices. If school become an exemplification of contemporary individualistic and consumer
societies, where everyone cares about their own good, and relationships are established primarily in
order to attain goods that are impossible to acquire otherwise, students strive to acquire knowledge
and competences that increase the chances of success in later life, and often collaborate with their
schoolmates because it suits their own interests. Teachers can take advantage of these mechanisms
and motivate students to learn by allowing competition between them. Students thus achieve better
results, but at the expense of them ― developing moral vices, such as egoism, craftiness or
selfishness. This mechanism could be used in many schools, regardless of whether they declare
a Christian or secular character. Can a teacher direct school community life in such a way that it
promotes a sense of responsibility for a classmate, the importance of supporting a classmate in his/
her weakness, and the ability to give up certain pleasures to help another person? Students should
learn prudence, justice, temperance and courage in relation to their schoolmates every day (van der
Zee 2012; Kozubek 2015). Special opportunities to support moral development are critical moments
in the lives of individual students, particularly if, for instance, one of the students falls seriously ill,
undergoes a crisis in his/her family or his/her family experiences a traumatic event (e.g. the death of
a family member).
in a situation requiring decision, they are able to take a morally difficult decision. Following the
reflection of Thomas Aquinas on the virtues, it may be stated that students, within didactic classes,
may develop the virtues of deliberation well and judiciousness (good sense), which are related to
a situation analysis and have a characteristically intellectual nature, but within these classes, they will
not be able to obtain the virtue of prudence which is expressed in firm decision making.
The above statements do not depreciate the value of knowledge transferred within school
education. Thomas Aquinas himself is the author of a well-known statement: ‘God’s greatest gift
to human beings is reason’. Through the life, human beings are not only guided by reason, but they
can be changed only when their way of understanding reality is changed. Maritain in his famous
work Education at the Crossroads (1943) ascertained that education of man is always an appeal for his
reason. Intellectual development is important and constitutes a condition for moral development,
including virtues development. If maturing persons, at some point of their life, are to seize control of
their moral development, starting thereby the process of self-education, it is vital for them to be
previously introduced to the understanding of moral virtue.
As regards the area that we are interested in, the key lies not only in supporting positive attitudes
towards moral virtue and encouraging students to take actions that develop such virtues (Smith and
Smith 2013), but also in explaining what concrete virtues are about. Unfortunately, virtue ― as
a moral proficiency ― is not distinguished from habit in contemporary culture. Virtue is proficiency
in adapting activities to goals and circumstances, so it is reason-based. Habits are revealed in
automatic, thoughtless actions. In modern cultures, these two phenomena are not distinguished
from each other, since the term ‘habitus’ ― used by Thomas Aquinas to mean such a formation of
man that manifests itself in reason-based actions ― has been utilised in psychological and socio-
logical theories to define an automatic, mechanical action (an example of this is the theory of Pierre
Bourdieu, Austin 2017). Consequently, students do not perceive that the same virtue can manifest
itself in different decisions when those decisions are taken in different contexts, or the action can be
a manifestation of either virtue or vice, depending on the context. They do not perceive, for example,
that taking actions that threaten health and life can, in certain circumstances, be a manifestation of
the virtue of courage, and in other circumstances a manifestation of thoughtless bravado (which is in
fact a vice), or that transferring money to a stranger may in some circumstances be an expression of
the virtue of generosity, while in other circumstances it may indicate the vice of prodigality. School
education should therefore introduce an understanding of virtue that can help to properly identify
examples of it and distinguish those examples from similar but non-virtuous features.
In this context, introducing an understanding of virtue is connected with showing its relationship with
the cardinal virtues. This of course assumes a prior understanding of the cardinal virtues by the students.
Defining a given feature as a virtue or vice implies indicating whether that feature leads to prudent and
just actions in specific situations, or alternatively to hasty and unreasonable actions that are unjust to the
people who directly or indirectly experience the effects of specific decisions brought about by that
features. Consequently, a virtue or vice can be identified when, in an individual’s given action, the role
that moderation/immoderation and courage/cowardice played when the decision was made is indicated.
Finally, it is important for students to learn the understanding of virtue through examples that are
close to their life, and consequently to analyse the decisions they have made, in which they have
dealt with moral dilemmas, while identifying their own virtues or vices. The narration about virtues,
as well as the examples cited to characterise specific virtues, often do not relate to students’ daily
decisions. Students learn virtues through the example of heroic deeds, in which individuals risk their
health or life for the good of others. Consequently, knowledge of virtue is not directly related to their
own lives. If it is true that in order to make heroic decisions one has to mature for years by making
good decisions on seemingly unimportant matters on a daily basis, then students must discover
virtues and vices in their own relationships with family, schoolmates and neighbours, so that this
knowledge can accentuate their diligence, kindness, punctuality, exactitude, modesty, patience and
forbearance.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 455
must be stated that the potential of Christian religious education in relation to supporting moral
development which is understood as the development of moral virtues is limited. Referring to
Maritain’s thesis, it can be said that Christian religious education conducted within its contemporary
socio-cultural and legal conditions is rather a ‘premoral’ than moral education; it more creates the
foundation for Christian moral development than supports the development of Christian moral
character.
Conclusion
The analysis conducted in the article was made on the basis of the theory of moral virtue formulated
by Thomas Aquinas, and developed in works of contemporary neo-Thomists. Their purpose was to
determine the extent of the potential of Christian religious education to support students’ moral
development. The analysis was accompanied by an assumption that each school is not only provided
with certain content, including an introduction to the understanding of moral problems and possible
ways to solve them, but it also develops specific character traits among students. Depending on how
students’ community life is, their cooperation and care for each other is organised by teachers who,
by means of their ideas, can either support the development of students’ moral virtues or support
the development of students’ moral vices. In extreme cases, a student might be taught about moral
good and at the same time, the mode of school functioning could stimulate the development of
moral vices.
Reflection on the theory of moral virtues leads to the conclusion that virtue education should be
accompanied by such an organisation of school life that students could build communities in which
they take responsibility for one another and work together towards the achievement of morally
acceptable goals. The only condition for virtues’ development, including cardinal virtues – prudence,
justice, temperance and fortitude, is the pursuit of the realisation of a common good. Transferring
knowledge about virtues and caring for their proper understanding by students are crucial, but as
such they cannot make students be more patient, understanding or inclined to forgo simple
pleasures.
Reflection on school education from the perspective of the Thomistic theory of moral virtues also
allowed us to ascertain what the specificity of moral education implemented within religious
education is. This is related to the development of theological virtues that can support students’
motivation to care for the good of their classmates, even if they have suffered harm from them or
perceive a hostile attitude from the individual in concern. The reflection taken in the article also leads
to the conclusion that religious education can play an important role in moral education understood
as supporting the development of moral virtues, when it is not limited only to the implementation of
informational functions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Dr Jarosław Horowski is an associate professor in Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Nicolaus Copernicus
University in Toruń, Institute of Education Sciences, Chair of History and Theory of Education, editor-in-chief of the
scientific journal “Paedagogia Christiana”. Author of Moral Education According to neo-Thomistic Pedagogy (WN UMK,
2015). Intrested in Philosophy of education, moral and religious education, neo-Thomistic notion in pedagogy,
education for moral virtues, and education for forgiveness.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 457
ORCID
Jarosław Horowski http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6412-1544
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