What Prevents Christians from Learning to Be Good?

This article riffs on the title of John Hull's classic work, What prevents Christian adults from learning?, in which he identifies the pathology of the 'unlearning religious person' and the defences that individuals and churches construct to avoid the pain of Christian cognitive learning. Learning Chrisitan values and virtues is rather different, but can still be a pain – and a much more potent and personal one. The paper explores some of the problems and possibiliteis, both for disciples and ministers, of 'learning the Christian character'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]