Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian - Faith Stages 5 and 6

This is the 4th in a series of posts about the 7 faith stages that James Fowler presents in his book, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian. The 3 previous posts are introduction: the house of my soul is small, stages 1 & 2, and stages 3 & 4.

Note that in the preceding post, Fowler warns that many people get stuck in the 4th stage; as we move now to the latter stages of development, it is easy to understand why many get stuck in the Synthetic-Conventional stage, because the following stage is uncomfortable and moves the person into a time of significant disorientation and confusion related to his or her faith. Most people don't want to go there and so it is not unusual that people remain in stage 4.

Now onto stage 5...

Stage 5 - Individuative-Reflective Faith: young adulthood is a time when this stage typically begins to appear. The Synthetic-Conventional faith (stage 4) is tacit in nature; in other words, the person's faith has not been critically examined or reflected upon but rather has been inherited from trusted people without having thought it through for oneself and without having carefully listened to other points of view outside of one's social network and belief system.

Usually the rise of this stage of faith comes because of experiences of life that force a person to "objectify, examine, and make critical choices about the defining elements of their identity and faith."

At the core of this transition are 2 fundamental movements going on: 1) "From a definition of self derived from one's relations and roles and the network of expectations that go with them, the self must now begin to be and act from a new quality of self-authorization."  2) "There must be an objectification and critical choosing of one's beliefs, values, and commitments, which come to be taken as a systemic unity."

If this stage happens at an older age, it can cause a lot of disturbance to the person's social network. Consequently, not many successfully transition fully into the next stage. Some make a partial shift and remain somewhere between stages 5 and 6.


Stage 6 - Conjunctive Faith: comes mid-life or beyond. In this stage one begins to discover what Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) called "the coincidence of opposites", or they begin to discover the "Being wherein all opposites and contradictions meet and are reconciled...In this transition the firm boundaries of the previous stage begin to become porous and permeable. The confident conscious ego must develop a humbling awareness of the power and influence of aspects of the unconscious on our reactions and behavior..."

Hallmarks of the transition to conjunctive faith are the following:1) awareness of the need to face and hold together unmistakable polar tensions in life, such as being both old and young and both masculine and feminine, having both a conscious self and a shadow self. 2) realization that truth is more complex than most of the either-or categories of the individuative stage; conjunctive faith can value paradox and apparent contradictions of perspectives on truth. 3) transition to a 'second naivete', a post-critical receptivity and a genuine openness to the truths of traditions and communities other than one's own traditions. 

"...Conjunctive faith exhibits a combination of committed belief in and through the particularities of a tradition, while insisting upon the humility that knows that the grasp on ultimate truth that any of our traditions can offer needs continual correction and challenge. This is to help overcome blind spots as well as the tendency to idolatry (the overidentification of our symbolizations of transcending truth with the reality of truth), to which all of our traditions are prone...Persons of Conjunctive faith are not likely to be 'true believers' in the sense of an undialectical, single-minded, uncritical devotion to a cause or ideology...They know that the line between the righteous and the sinners goes through the heart of each of us and our communities, rather than between 'us and them'."

The next post will be about the 7th and final stage of faith: Universalizing Faith. 


 

Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian - Faith Stages 3 and 4

Continuing on with the series of posts about the seven stages of faith (as presented by James W. Fowler in his book, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian), I will now cover stages 3 and 4. The previous two posts having to do with this are here and here.

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.

Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian - Seven Stages of Faith (Stages 1 & 2)

In my previous post, The House of My Soul is Small..., I introduced a book by James W. Fowler entitled Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian and shared a brief line about each of Fowler's seven stages of faith in this book.

Today I'll share in more detail what he says about the first two stages: Primal Faith and Intuitive-Projective Faith. Fowler uses terms of our growth and maturity as humans (from infant to elderly) to describe our growth in God.

1) Primal Faith: this is the infant stage. "During the first year, the mutual task of the baby and those providing care involve bonding and attachment, as well as the generation of a trusting give-and-take." In this stage, the baby hasn't develop his/her full sense of selfhood but already struggles for some balance of trust in the worth of the self and in the rely-ability of the environment made up of those under whose care the self has begun to form.

"The first symbols of faith are likely to take primitive form in the baby's hard-won memories of maternal and paternal presence. As dependable realities who go away but can be trusted to return, our primary care givers constitute our first experiences of superordinate power and wisdom, as well as our dependence." Because of the profound impact that these "primal others" have on us early in life, their mixtures of harshness and tenderness and rigidity and grace all are present in the images of God that begin to take form when we are around 4 or 5 years old. We transfer what we experience from primary care givers onto our image of God.

In this first stage of development, the struggle is for "basic trust versus basic mistrust." A child that is raised in a relatively healthy loving environment enjoys basic trust in this stage.

2) Intuitive-Projective Faith: starting around age two a revolution begins for the child as language emerges to now mediate his/her relationship with others and the world. "Language makes possible a qualitatively new reflectiveness on the environment and a qualitatively new reflexiveness with regard to the self...The child, now able to walk freely and question everything, daily encounters novelties and newness...Perception, feelings, and imaginative fantasy make up children's principal ways of knowing - and transforming - their experiences." 

In this stage of growth, the child forms "deep and long-lasting images" that keep their world of meaning together. It's a time in which he/she is waking up to the larger community and world around them...

Faith is more intuitive in this stage of development. We know by perception and imagination more than by logic.

In the next post we'll look at the next two stages: mythic-literal faith and synthetic-conventional faith.

The House of My Soul is Small...

Many years ago I began regularly praying a prayer of St. Augustine's: "The house of my soul is small; do Thou enter in and enlarge it..." I believe God hears these simple and sincerely repeated prayers and He has been answering this prayer for me bit by bit (and continues to do so). I've discovered that having my heart enlarged is costly but more than worth it. I want to have a heart that is increasingly like His - large and able to encompass all people of all types and ethnicities and persuasions.

I recently read a wonderful book on human development by James W. Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian in which he brings together theology and developmental psychology and practical ethics to show how communities of faith can support and nurture individuals as they shape themselves and are shaped.

Fowler presents seven stages of faith in human development, the last one being one in which the follower of Jesus begins to see and value other beings from the standpoint of the loving Creator rather than from the standpoint of a vulnerable, fearful, defensive creature.

I found this book very helpful for understanding my own growth and also that of others who I have the joy of mentoring. The seventh stage of faith is, I believe, the answer to this prayer of St. Augustine's: "The house of my soul is small; do Thou enter in and enlarge it."

In this post I will simply list the seven stages of faith and in the following weeks I'll go through each one more carefully, explaining each one as Fowler presents them. The seven stages he proposes are the following:
1) Primal Faith - the infant stage: a simple faith of basic trust
2) Intuitive-Projective Faith - the toddler stage: when perception, feelings and imagination make up the child's principal ways of knowing
3) Mythic-Literal Faith - stage when a child starts to school: a faith that relies on "the stories, rules, and implicit values of the family's community of meanings"
4) Syntheic-Conventional Faith - early adolescence stage: cognitive development comes here and causes the child to become self-conscious as he/she is more aware of the fact that others think differently than they do
5) Individuative-Reflective Faith - young adult/adult stage: process of "objectifying, examining, and making  critical choices about the defining elements of their identity and faith"
6) Conjunctive Faith - mid-life stage: growing sense that "truth is more multiform and complex than most of the clear, either-or categories" of earlier stages
7) Universalizing Faith - mature adulthood stage: a faith that is the "fruit of a person's total and pervasive response in love and trust to the radical love of God"