HUMAN FLOURISHING: THE CONTEXT FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Although character formation has always been a central goal of education, efforts to promote character education in schools have, in the last century, always been hampered by an inability to adequately define character. We offer the concept of the flourishing life as the appropriate context for defining and developing character. This concept, which includes a robust understanding of character, has historically prevailed in Western thought. We first recover some of the historical discussion, and then consider essential elements of the good life in light of this historical discourse and the findings of the social sciences, including the focused work on the flourishing life coming out of positive psychology. Finally, we consider some implications of a well-formed understanding of human flourishing for Christian higher education.