Welcome
The Brilliant Star framework organizes what is known about human potentials that can be developed into competencies through learning, acknowledging that individuals grow within and are shaped by their sociocultural environments—and that positively influencing these environments advances everyone’s development. While grounded primarily in scientific knowledge, the framework also draws on insights from religion, the arts, history, and various philosophies. This website focuses specifically on materials developed from religious perspectives that illuminate the development of human potential.
The materials are organized into four categories. The first category of worldview provides an overview of the general orientation that guides the selection and development of materials. It is acknowledged that human beings do not interact with reality as it actually exists, but rather with mental representations that have been individually created as they mature and learn while engaged in interactions with their sociocultural milieu. The topics in this category were selected to make this organization as explicit as possible.
The second category focuses on moral character and related virtues that define characteristics or qualities related to habitual ways of thinking, valuing, choosing, and behaving. These are organized in the eight domains described in the Brilliant Star framework: (1) Cognition or thinking; (2) Affect or emotions; (3) Conation or agency; (4) Social interactions (5) Body or physical; (6) Spiritual; (7) Moral character; and (8) Self-views.
The third category describes principles related to holistic human development such as unity in diversity, justice and equity, and providing service to others. The concepts define processes that guide the development of virtues.
Finally, the fourth category describes components of the sociocultural milieu in which the individual grows and develops such as the family, neighborhood, school, society, as well as the entire globe.