A Place for Shame in Religious Education

An 18th-century parable based on the Adam story offers a model of moral education rooted in communitarianism. Individual conscience arises from social norms, with a vital role for shame and pride. Emphasizing the nobility of being created in the divine image, this model overcomes shortcomings of rationalist, Enlightenment education. Moreover, the parable reads the political setting of Exodus as an antidote to the individualist failings of Genesis. The social framework enables mechanisms like conscience and cognitive dissonance to function. The model challenges some current conceptions of moral education, seeing empathy as the result, rather than the cause, of moral behavior.