A few books describe a variety of secular theories of moral development. And
numerous books compare two or more religious traditions. But I have not found
any that furnish both a sampling of secular models of moral development and a
sampling of moral development theories deriving from religious doctrine. The
purpose of the present book is to provide such an offering. My intention has
been to display within the covers of a single volume this pair of perspectives
toward moral development--the secular and the religious--that typically are
isolated from each other in scholarly discourse.

Obviously there is far too little space in this one book to include descriptions
of all available moral development theories. Therefore, the following pages do
not pretend to furnish a definitive survey of the field. Rather, the collection
represents only the most apparent major types of theories-- secular and
religious--and several lesser variants of secular models and minor religious
faiths.

The principal secular varieties include commonsense attribution theory,
cognitive-structural models, social-learning theories, psychoanalysis, Marxist
conceptions, and a composite theory. The major religious persuasians are those
of the Judaic-Christian-Islamic line, Hinduism and three derivatives (Buddhism,
Jainism, Sikhism), and the Confucian and Shinto belief systems.

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