Narnian Virtues

Professor Mark Pike is Chief Executive of the Emmanuel Schools Foundation in the UK, which provides 'Christian-ethos schools of character for the whole community'. Mark directed the Templeton-funded Narnian Virtues project at the University of Leeds, where he is Visiting Professor. As an internationally respected educator and C.S. Lewis scholar, his two most recent books are Ethical English and Mere Education: C.S. Lewis as Teacher for our Time (translated into Dutch and Korean). Professor Thomas Lickona has led the character education movement in the US for the last thirty years and has spent the last five years collaborating on Narnian Virtues. A developmental psychologist at the State University of New York (Cortland), his books on character development, have been translated into a dozen languages, and include the popular Educating for Character, Character Matters, and, most recently, How to Raise Kind Kids.

In the darkness of our disintegrating post-Christian culture, Narnian Virtues is a shining light. Pike and Lickona have produced a brilliant and readable book that deserves to become an educational classic.Philip Vander Elst, author of C. S. Lewis: A Short IntroductionPike and Lickona give us a curriculum that uses Lewis's stories as transformative moral education. Prepare yourself for an enjoyable read - scholarship is rarely so adventurous! Dr Perry L. Glanzer, author of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Teaching The authors of this volume use the Narnia Chronicles to serve a vital purpose: character formation. Lessons about virtue, its value, its vocabulary, are derived from Lewis' classic tales in ways which go with their grain, helpfully exemplifying his ethical philosophy. I very warmly recommend it.Michael Ward, author of After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man.Narnian Virtues offers parents and teachers plenty of information and inspiration to explore character education, as well as a wealth of helpful activities and examples, and practical guidance.Christin Ditchfield, author of A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of NarniaA must read for all involved in educating young people - with case studies of schools and families of character demonstrating how children are guided to develop an informed moral compass for the modern age.Dame Maura Regan, CEO of the Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education TrustPike and Lickona draw on the timeless wisdom of C. S. Lewis about what character is and offer wise and perceptive observations, suggesting how the rising generation might acquire some measure of wisdom. This is a most valuable book on an important subject.Professor James Arthur OBE, Director of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of BirminghamThis book sets out a first-class character education programme: imaginative, inspiring, highly engaging - (who could ever forget their Turkish delight?!) - and genuinely helping young children to make wiser choices. Exactly what a real education should be!Daniel Wright, Headmaster of The London Oratory SchoolAll in all, this is an oasis of good moral and spiritual education in what can sometimes seem a desert. I hope many will be able to drink from its wellspring and have their thirst quenched.Michael Nazir-Ali, (Anglican) Bishop Emeritus of Rochester, President of Oxtrad, Hon Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.This book resonates well with the Catholic approach to character education. It offers parents and teachers numerous activities for developing character through formation in the virtues as elucidated in the Narnia novels of C. S. Lewis.Rt Revd Marcus Stock, (Roman Catholic) Bishop of LeedsIn this book, Mark Pike and Tom Lickona, both experts in the field, share ways to glean deeper truths and meaning from C.S. Lewis's enchanted world and, in so doing, they have made character education more accessible for all of us. Narnian Virtues deserves a celebration on both sides of the Atlantic.Anna E. McEwan, Dean, Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education, Samford University