Covenant Mennonite Church
Session 1: STAGES OF FAITH
James W. Fowler is a theologian and scholar who has studied the development of faith, as it can be found in a number of religious traditions and a variety of Christian denominations. His aim, he said, was “to clarify the dynamics of faith as the ways we go about making and maintaining meaning in life.” In his research and writing, he has sought “to affirm the largeness and mystery of faith.”
In his pioneering classic, Stages of Faith, The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (1981), Fowler identifies seven stage-like “styles of faith.”
0) Primal Faith (Pre-Stage): This is the stage of infancy (roughly from birth to the age of two) and undifferentiated faith. The child makes no distinction between self and the environment or between self and those providing primary care. The child has a pre-language sense of trust and of safety in the universe and the Divine. In this stage, the quality with which the child’s emotional and security needs are met shapes all that comes in later faith development.
1) Imaginative Faith (Intuitive-Projective Stage): This is the stage of pre-school children when reality and fantasy are often mixed together. The child’s most basic ideas about God usually are picked up from parents and significant adults. God the Father may be associated with an earthly father’s dependability (or lack of it). The child has become self-aware, but does not understand that others have a different perspective. The child’s religious descriptions may not make sense logically. The imagination is shaped by stories, feelings, and actions that create enduring images of the powers that protect and threaten the child’s life.
2) Literal Faith (Mythic-Literal Stage): This stage spans later childhood and sometimes beyond. The child has learned to distinguish between real and make-believe, is better able to take on the perspectives of others, and has a strong belief in justice. God is thought of in terms of human actions and qualities. The child accepts the stories told by the faith community, but tends to understand them in very literal ways. (Some people remain in this stage through adulthood).
3) Conventional Faith (Synthetic-Conventional Stage): This stage generally develops during adolescence (teen years) and often continues for a lifetime. Early in this stage, the person pulls together past experiences and diverse perspectives to form a coherent identity and some sort of all-encompassing belief system. However, the self-identity—with its values and convictions—is established with little reflection. The person in this stage does not recognize that he or she is ‘inside’ a particular belief system and thus has a hard time seeing outside of it. This belief system provides a sense of belonging (community) and reliable external authority (stability). The person may become uncomfortable or angry when the belief system is challenged.
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4) Reflective Faith (Individuative-Reflective Stage) : This stage, often begun early in adulthood, is characterized by intense questioning and critical examination of one’s beliefs. The person starts to see “outside the box” and to realize there are other ‘boxes.’ This may be a time of “demythologizing”—rejecting previously accepted symbols, practices, and Bible stories.
The transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4 may be precipitated by leaving home—physically, emotionally, or both. The person may experience a crisis of faith, caused by a death or unexpected loss. The person may discover imperfections in religious leaders or confront contradictions in earlier beliefs and practices. Stage 3 people usually conclude that Stage 4 persons have become “backsliders”; in reality, they have moved forward in their faith, internalizing authority and taking personal responsibility for their beliefs and practices. However, some people in this stage move away from traditional faith of any kind.
5) Reconnecting Faith (Conjunctive Stage): This stage of faith, sometimes called the “second naiveté,” is seldom reached before mid-life (late 30’s or later). Recognizing the limits of logic and the need for multiple interpretations of reality, the person accepts paradox, embraces polarities, and sees that life is filled with mystery and things unknown. The person reconnects to the stories and symbols found in the Conventional and Reflective stages of faith, now affirming them as tools that help to express truth and encounter God.
Fowler found that only one in six people interviewed had reached this stage.
6) Sacrificial Faith (Universalizing Stage): This stage, which is best represented by Jesus, is reached by very few people. Fowler cites such examples as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A person in this enlightened stage is deeply aware of God’s inner presence and recognizes the community of all people. The person focuses intensely on service to others and works sacrificially to overcome division, oppression and violence and to transform humankind.
