Stages of Faith P1
Fowler’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[1]. 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.
1. 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 cubbyhole mentality (Fowler & Keen, 1985:39).”
2. The staging of a person is not an evaluative scale by which to establish the comparative worth of persons. Fowler claims, “ that the stages should never be used for the nefarious comparison or the devaluing of persons (Fowler, 1987:80).” As such the stages are not to be seen as stages in soteriology. There are people at each stage who are persons of serenity, courage and genuine faith
2. Faith
For 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.
2. 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 Development
Fowlers 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[2] 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.
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 varies, yet for each individual there are a number of significant changes that occur in the faith journey. These are the transition points. During these transition points a major change in the basis of our operations of faith occur. Hence the development of faith is not a gentle undemanding stroll through life, involving gradual and imperceptible maturity; but a series of progressive growth stages followed by radical upheavals in our faith operations. Again it needs to be clarified that these upheavals that may result in a person moving to another stage of faith development do not necessarily involve a change in the contents of one’s faith beliefs.
The transition between stages is a difficult and often painful process. It involves relinquishing a previously held way of knowing and valuing. We need to be aware that such transitional changes can be very difficult for the person involved and may seem like being at sea, with a loss of all anchor points[3].
Fowler states that “stage dissolution means enduring the dissolution of a total way of making sense of things. It means relinquishing a sense of coherence in one’s near and ultimate environment. It frequently involves living with a deep sense of alienation for considerable periods (Fowler, 1978:37).” Because it is such a demanding and difficult process to transcend from one means of faith operation to another, Fowler suggests that many people revert to a previous stage rather than face the difficulty or uncertainty of the transition. People may also spend long periods of time[4] and energy transitioning. For this reason some people are best described as being in a transition phase.
5. The Six Stages of Fowler’s Faith Development Theory.
Fowler uses a six-staged progression for faith development which begins around the second year of a child’s life. He does however note the significant faith learning that occurs prior to this age under the heading Primal Faith.
Stage 1: The Intuitive-Projective stage.
At about age two children begin to develop language ability, they can move around freely and investigate and question for themselves. Their lives are a seamless world of fantasy, stories, experiences and imagery. During this stage self is the centre of experience. There are no existing inner structures for sorting and understanding the experiences of the child. Life at this stage is a collage of dis-organized images. These images include the real events of daily life and the imaginary fantasy life of the child.
The children are totally dependent on parents or other adult figures. At this stage authority is based on physical size or the power of external symbols (e.g.- uniforms). Here Children are influenced by the examples, stories and actions of others. Fowler claims the strength of the stage lies in the birth of the imagination, the ability to hold the intuitive understandings and feelings in powerful images and stories.
The dangers of this stage lie in the potential for the child to be overwhelmed by images of terror and destructiveness. The transition to the next stage involves the child’s growing concern to know how things are and to clarify what is real and what only seems that way (Fowler:1981; p122-134).
Stage 2: Mythical-Literal.
To move to this second stage children will necessarily have moved to the cognitive developmental level of `concrete operational thinking’. From this the child can draw stable categories of space, time and causality. For children at this stage the world has now become linear, orderly and predictable (Fowler:1984;p55). At this stage they are better able to think logically. They can take the perspective of someone outside of themselves; this means they can develop a clear sense of fairness. “Faith at this stage becomes a matter of reliance on the stories, rules and implicit values of the family’s community of meaning (Fowler:1984;p55)”.
At this stage the bounds of the child’s world have widened. The primary influence of the family has been added to by the influence of teachers, school, other pupils, television, movies and reading. Because of this the variety of influences affecting the child increase. Here the child typically makes strong associations with `people like us’ and tends to look critically at those who are ‘different’ (Fowler & Keen:1985;p50). During this stage the child begins to “accept the stories, and beliefs that symbolise belonging to her community. Symbols are taken as one dimensional and literal in their meaning. Adults who become stabilised at this stage tend to express the following characteristics.
· A sense of cosmic reciprocity, where what you get out of life is determined by what you put in. This tends to be a simplistic notion of the good get rewarded and the bad get punished, which allows little room for bad things to happen to essentially good people. Adults at this stage may bargain with `God’ saying - I will behave in such and such a way to ensure your blessing.
· Tend to define people according to their roles and actions, rather than being able to differentiate the role from the person performing it[5].
· Adults at this stage tend to engage in little personal reflection on themselves or others. People are taken at face value, and little thought is given to what may influence them to behave in the way they do.
· Adults at this stage tend to use narrative stories as their primary way of communicating their meaning to others. As yet they are unable to draw abstract conclusions about the general meaning of life.
Although powerfully influenced by narrative and story people at this stage cannot stand back and view the events from the position of a neutral observer. Here they lack the ability to reflect on either their own position or the position of others from a ‘value free’ position.
Stage 3 Synthetic-Conventional.
By the term `Synthetic’ Fowler means that at this level the individual attempts to draw together the disparate elements of his/her life into an integrated identity. The term `Conventional’ indicates that the values and beliefs they hold are derived from a group of significant others and for the most part are accepted without being examined.
Individuals at this stage are acutely tuned to the expectations and judgements of others, and as yet do not have a sure enough grasp of their own identity or faith in their own judgment to construct and maintain an independent perspective. Consistent with this a person at this level may hold deep convictions, yet typically they have not critically examined these. Fowler states: - “At stage 3 a person has an ideology, a more or less consistent clustering of values and beliefs, but he or she has not objectified these for examination and in a sense is unaware of having them (Fowler:1981:173)”.
This leads us to the significant danger of this stage, which is that the expectations and beliefs of others can be so deeply internalised that later autonomy of judgement and action can be jeopardized.
At this stage an individual may be involved in many different roles or ‘theaters of action’. In each of these there may be different views, beliefs, ideologies and ways of operating. This is coupled with the fact each of these roles may place different expectations on the individual. Because self-identity is so integrally tied to the expectations and judgements of others at this level such expectations of others weigh heavily on them. Fowler suggests that individuals may employ one of two strategies to cope with the dissonance of expectations and judgements placed on them in their different roles. The first of these he labels ‘Compartmentalizing’. Under this strategy the individual behaves within the expectations of one group when they are with them and behaves under the expectations of another group when with them. The other strategy to cope with this dissonance is to form a personal ‘hierarchy of authorities’, whereby the expectations and authority of one group is seen as primary and others must fall below these.
People at this stage are generally committed workers and servers who have a strong sense of loyalty to their church. They are not typically innovative thinkers who would not normally be interested in analytical approaches to faith.
In a church situation Fowler describes people at this stage as “looking for a relationship with God and with the important persons of their lives in which they feel that they are living up to the expectations these important others have of them (Folwer:1987;p87)”. They have a strong sense of the church as an extended family; even a romanticized extended family, where the important thing is to be there to support each other. Because of this conflict and controversy are threatening to them. They will tend to work for harmony and would often prefer to bury conflict rather than allow it to surface and potentially destabilise the sense of community which is so important to them. As they come to church and take part in the service they are looking for, all be it unconsciously, a sense of warmth and connectedness.
Jack Pressau in his book -‘I’m Saved, You’re Saved - Maybe’. takes Fowler’s stages and looks at them from a Soteriological[6] perspective. In this analysis he speaks of the Synthetic-Conventional stage of faith as having that ‘arrived feel to it’. Religious groups that reinforce this ‘arrived feel’ can be fast growing.