This chapter considers the major Abrahamic faiths on a continuum from dynamic to dogmatic. On the dynamic side lies the God of covenant and a life consistent with an open society. On the dogmatic side lies the ruler of the universe and a life aligned with a closed society. Readings of Abraham’s story leaning toward the dynamic end of this continuum are more authentic than those tending toward the dogmatic end. Dynamic readings of Abraham’s legacy are also more ethically robust and their transmission more genuinely educational, conceived as initiation into intelligent worldviews while learning from and about alternatives. This dialogical concept of education, called the “pedagogy of difference,” can lead us out of our current morass in which people of deep difference are increasingly incapable of communicating with one another.

Chapter 6 considers a conception of the self that is especially conducive, if not essential, to becoming aware of and sensitive to one’s obligation to care for others. It argues that awareness of and sensitivity to the ethical imperative of caring for others requires the confirmation of an enriched version of oneself grounded in a personal sense of moral agency. This sense of agency entails the realisation that, within reasonable limits, one is free to choose a life path, understand the consequences of the path one has chosen, and adjust it as one sees fit. Such a deepened sense of self (and self-responsibility) is necessary in order to receive and attend to the needs and feelings of others. To pursue ethical education conceived in this way, both faith-based and common schools of those societies that initiate into particular traditions and those that educate believers and non-believers from a diversity of worldviews ought to nurture moral agency. Pedagogies of the sacred, which initiate students into intelligent spiritualties that give expression to particular identities, and pedagogies of difference, which teach and learn from and about a variety of worldviews, embody educational processes critical to that end.