Stage 3 - Mythic-Literal Faith: this occurs about when the child starts to school. "Now able to reverse processes of thought and to coordinate more than one feature of a situation at a time, the world becomes more linear, orderly, and predictable." In this stage the child begins to recognize that others have perspectives that differ from his. Children at this stage develop a strong sense of fairness in their thinking about right and wrong, good and evil.
Faith now involves valuing the stories, beliefs and practices of the tradition within the child's community. "Knowing the stories of 'our people' becomes an important index of identification and of evaluation of self and others and their groups. The ability to create classes based on distinguishing characteristics of objects or groups makes these kinds of identifications (and exclusions) important matters in this stage."
In this stage a child defines himself and other persons in terms of their actions and affiliations with family and other groups. He hasn't yet constructed a sense of himself or others in terms of personality or inner feelings and reflection. His primary sense of who he is has to do with whom he is connected.
The author points out that from this stage through the rest of the stages, the same characteristics can be seen in adults (in terms of where they are in their faith) as well as in the particular biological age group that is being described. So those who come into their faith as adults can be found in any of these later stages.
Stage 4 - Synthetic-Conventional Faith: typically begins to emerge in early adolescence. Adolescence brings a revolution in cognitive development!
"In formal operational thinking the mind takes wings. No longer is it limited to the mental manipulation of concrete objects or representations and of observable processes. Now thinking begins to construct all sorts of ideal possibilities and hypothetical considerations...Formal operational thinking makes possible the generation and use of abstract concepts and ideals. It makes it possible to think in terms of systems. And it enables us to construct the perspectives of others on ourselves - to see ourselves as others see us."The adolescent is waking up to consciousness, suddenly aware and interested in the interior (emotions, personality, ideas, thoughts, experiences) of himself and of others. The "synthetic" being referred to here means it's a stage in which the young person begins to be able to pull together (synthesize) parts of his own interior life into some sense of selfhood (identity), and also to pull together the stories and values and beliefs into a cohesive unity to help him get a sense of the meaning of life in general and of his/her own life in particular.
"Although each person's worldview synthesis in this stage is in some degree unique, we describe it as 'conventional' for two important reasons: 1) it is a synthesis of belief and value elements that are derived from one's significant others...2) it is a synthesis of belief and value that has, in this stage, a largely 'tacit' (as opposed to 'explicit') character."
As it pertains to one's stage in faith development, this is a stage in which the synthesis of one's beliefs and values and stories are supportive and sustaining and are held and felt deeply and strongly. In this stage the Christian is "embedded" in his faith outlook and derives his sense of identity from membership in his circle of relationships.
Fowler makes a very important observation/warning about Christians who are in this stage of faith development: "It is important to recognize that many persons equilibrate in the Synthetic-Conventional stage. The world view and sense of self synthesized in this stage and the authorities who confirm one's values and beliefs are internalized, and the person moves on through the life cycle with a set of tacitly held, strongly felt, but largely unexamined beliefs and values."
Next we will look at stages 5 & 6: individuative-reflective faith and conjunctive faith.
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