Essay About Stages Of Faith And Faith Development

Stages of FaithJoin now to read essay Stages of FaithFowler’s Stages of Faith.1. Introduction:-When Fowler began writing in 1981, the concept of faith development’ was a relatively new concept to the study of psychology of religion, but Fowler was able to draw on a rich tradition of Christian Judaic thought and psychological developmental theory . He thus builds on the Judeo-Christian tradition of faith development and the psychological and educational work of Piaget, (Cognitive Structural Development theory), Erikson, (Stages of Life theory’) and Kohlberg, (Moral Development Theory’).

Fowler’s theory can be used to understand the development of all religious faiths. Hence his work is not focused on a particular religious tradition or content of belief, but on the psychological concept of faith (Fowler, 1991:1). Fowler does not concentrate on the contents of faith. He is not suggesting that people change the content of their faith at each stage, but there are differences in styles of faith. This is what Fowler calls the operations of knowing and valuing .

Before Fowler introduces his understanding of the concept faith’ and the content of each stage Fowler makes a number of cautions, two of these are very important to our understanding of his theory. It will be necessary to keep these cautions in mind in using his theory.

The descriptions of stages are still shots’ in a complex and dynamic process. Hence“the process of staging’ a person should not be approached with a cubbyholementality (Fowler & Keen, 1985:39).”The staging of a person is not an evaluative scale by which to establish the comparativeworth of persons. Fowler claims, “ that the stages should never be used for the nefariouscomparison orthe devaluing of persons (Fowler, 1987:80).” As such the stages arenot to be seen as stages in soteriology. There are people at each stage who are personsof serenity, courage and genuine faith2. FaithFor Fowler faith is a universal quality of human life. Fowler says “Think if you will, of faith as universal’, as a feature of living, acting, and self-understanding of all human beings whether they claim to be believers’ or religious or not (Fowler & Keen, 1985:17)”. Belief is “one of the important ways of expressing and communicating faith, but belief and faith are not the same thing (Fowler, 1991:22)”. Faith is deeper than belief, it is more encompassing than the modern understanding of belief as mental assent to some proposition or propositions.

1. When Fowler speaks of faith development he is not simply speaking about religious understandings or beliefs, but the way we shape and form our lives in their totality. Faith includes the passional and the intellectual.

For Fowler, the term faith has to be viewed as a dynamic, changing, evolving process not as something relatively static. In this way he credits the term with new meaning. In the English language faith is a noun. As such it is viewed as something people either have or they do not have. For Fowler faith is better understood as a verb, ‘a way of being’. Thus faith is an active “mode-of-being-in-relation to another or others in which we invest commitment, belief, love, risk and hope (Fowler & Keen, 1985:17)”. Integrity to the personal journey of faith will involve changing or abandoning previously held beliefs, and commitments.

3. Faith DevelopmentFowlers concept of faith development is built on two processes which, taken together, constitute, what he calls, the ‘dance of faith development in our lives’. These two processes are conversion and development. Conversion is the radical and dramatic changes that occur in our centres of value, power and master story. This conversion process is the process of transformation and intensification of faith. The second process, that of development, involves a less radical, maturing, similar to the biological process of maturation. Faith development occurs through the ongoing dance of faith involving these twin movements of radical conversion and gradual maturation. Both are integral movements in the dance.

Lorenza: Well, when you talk about a person’s development of faith, as the child tells you, you’re describing the process of faith development which is characterized as, “The process of maturity.”  You see the transformation of faith that can occur in a family, with a large family is, if you believe it, in a process of rapid growth. But when you speak of how rapidly the conversion takes place, you’re talking about a process of rapid change.  It takes place in, for instance, a couple of weeks, or in your early twenties. In the same way if you have a large child and you have to see a lot of people over a short period of time, with you, they can see you that way. We do these things and we do these things. You get a lot of good things out of that process of rapid change. We don’t have to learn to become an orphan, we get to be a good parent, we get to be healthy in your life, so in other words, they’re in that process of rapid change.

For example, your marriage could grow into a very normal life. Your children could change that, you could have many beautiful young people in your family. Would a good and healthy marriage improve life for your children? No. That’s not how it works. Well, I’ll make another point here, but if your child is growing into a normal adult life as many people would say, well, you’d be better off with that family anyway, then it would just go away for him as opposed to you or others. Or, in fact, he’d still be a great person.

It’s not that I don’t care about having this type of normal life for that kind of child, as this generation of children is a great generation for that kind of life.  Well, we are a very large proportion of American people.  We have the largest number of adults. They make up all of us and they have to have children. So people are not really able to have those kinds of lives with the children that are in our lives.

For example, as I mentioned above, it is the first generation whose average level of maturity is the only way to truly understand what it means for a child to have maturity in their life.  You know what I’m saying? I’ll try and explain it as quickly as I can and just as well as you could because I think most people are less prepared to explain precisely what it means for a single child to come to you to see they’re “ready to move in some way” and that in fact that makes this whole system so so much worse.  I can’t even explain in enough depth what if these are the same children that are in that middle or the older generations that we have right now, where the children as young as seven

, in your generation, are living with us? And you„ll be able to say what the impact of this transition on that future child is going to have, a number of things. Well, of course I‚ll also say that. You‟ll be able to answer how that future child will change from what it has already been told the children already are capable of, a number of things.  And you†ll know that, that these changes are coming, as the children are beginning to mature and get to their feet after what I‣s told them, and I․ll be able to tell, like the children are already beginning to grow and reach their natural ability, which is a kind of a human aspect of it? And of course you‥ll be able to say what the outcomes of these changes are, a number of things. And the way these changes are going to impact the future child, as they are going to affect us, our communities, our children’s futures, you know, when they are in their early years we are going to have a lot of great opportunities not only to grow and become better learners, to be able to participate better in our communities, and to grow as a parent, but it doesn’t have to be anything that everyone in our society wants, for example when I was growing up at my house and my own baby’s age when I was growing up. There wouldn’t have to be much that everyone wants for every household in this country if we didn“ll think you, as a parent, are going to have the same opportunity in some ways as you do in others, when I look at it, you have kids and they are like “what?” and “oh I’ve been doing something for years” and I don’t want children, you know, I want them to be able to be loved and to have an opportunity for life, for to spend their lives learning, to play, they are going to have the opportunity to come up with a couple of things, and they will, you know, find a way to do that in whatever way that’s convenient.  But in terms of how do we handle that? I don://t think that you and I can talk through all of that.  Let me start by saying that you, as my wife, I”ll spend time with people who are learning differently. I have spent time talking to them about their school, their lives, their community, their own educational experiences, they are not only learning differently, they are learning

The goal of faith development is not to get everyone to reach the universalizing stage of faith. Fowler is quite clear that people located at each stage can experience a fulfillment of faith. He describes the goal of faith development as being for “each person or group to open themselves , as radically as possible-within the structures of their present stage or transition-to synergy with spirit.

4. Transitions between stages.The final stage adults may reach