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.

In this chapter, I suggest that sexual ethics as it is present in much sex education fails to address some common and formative aspects of many people’s sexual lives. I argue that the foundation of sexual ethics, as part of the ethical life more broadly, is best captured by the metaphor of vision. Any sexual ethics that treats isolated moments of sexual action as the focus of what it means to be sexually moral is insufficient because it ignores the influence that the way people see the world can have on their sexuality (and vice versa). Moral vision is shaped by character, and the way people engage their sexuality is a formative arena for character. So, sex education must address issues of character, and, conversely, attempts at character education must address the power sexuality possesses in the formation of persons.