“Kakistocracy”: An Ethical Challenge to Christian Character Formation in Ghana

Joseph Kofi Antwi ORCID iD 

Issue: Vol.10 No.1 January 2024 Issue  Article 1  pp. 1-13
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20241011 |   Published online 30th January, 2024.
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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The pressing need to tackle the alarming erosion of moral standards in Ghana has been advocated. This comes in the wake of recent media reports of Ghana’s rapid deterioration in moral values.  In a country where 71% of the population identifies as Christians, the moral character of the nation has witnessed inefficiencies, displayed by incompetent leadership at all levels, spanning from family units and chieftaincy, and education to religious and political spheres. This article argued that these degradations raise an ethical question for the Church in Ghana as far as the Character formation of the Church is concerned. The question that this article sought to address was, why is Kakistocracy on the ascendancy, if indeed 71% of Ghanaians are Christians? What is happening? Through a review of some existing literature, the article discussed the concept of Kakistocracy and the challenges it poses to Christian Character Formation in Ghana. Through the lens of the ethical theory of virtue ethics, as the conceptual taxonomy, this article argued that the degradation of moral values means the Church in Ghana has not been able to shape the moral character of its members. Worded differently, the Church’s influence on shaping her member’s moral character has been low, or adulterated. The article, therefore, challenges the Church to critically examine her Character Formation agenda. The paper affirmed that the Church’s nurturing ministry has been adulterated and shaken by unpredictable political, social, technological, and cultural developments in the country. This article further argued that the Church, as one of the socialisation institutions in Ghana, has a role to play in preparing leaders with moral fortitude in society. Therefore, an urgent need is to strategically (re)construct the Church’s Character Formation programme for its members. So that they would be able to steer the nation’s social transformation.

Keywords: Kakistocracy, Nurturing, Christianity in Ghana, Character, Formation, Virtue Ethics.

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Joseph Kofi Antwi, Ph.D. (Religious Studies, KNUST). His research interests are African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS), Christian Education, Environmental Ethics, African Philosophy, Religion, and Media. He serves on the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Institutional Review Board (NMIMR-IRB) and is a member of the African Association for Pastoral Studies and Counselling (AAPSC). He is an Ordained Minister of the Gospel in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and currently serves as the Clerk of the Ga West Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

Antwi, Joseph Kofi. ““Kakistocracy”: An Ethical Challenge to Christian Character Formation in Ghana,” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 10 no.1 (2024): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20241011

© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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