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James Fowler views life as a pilgrimage, which takes us through various stages of ‘faith’. ‘Faith’ as understood by Fowler,
may, or may not be, interchangeable with religious beliefs. What Fowler means by ‘faith’ is the attempt by the individual, to give meaning to life. It is an ongoing process, made up of images, values and commitments that shapes our lives. Fowler draws on the theories of Erikson, Piaget and Kohlberg, together with valuable insights obtained from almost six hundred people of different religious backgrounds, through in-depth interviews, to produce the six stages an individual passes through in the search for the meaning and value of life.<1>
According to Fowler, the first two years of life is marked by undifferentiated faith, where the infant is forming a basic sense of trust, or being at home in the world. The feeling of trust, or lack of it, formed during this time will be confirmed by future religious experience.
The first, of Fowler’s six stages, is Intuitive/Projective Faith which covers the ages from two to six or seven. This stage is dominated by the role of the imagination. Free from the restrictions of logic, the child is open to experiences and images which can have dramatic long-term effects on the individual life of faith, both positively and negatively.
The second stage is Mythic/Literal Faith, (ages six/seven to eleven/twelve). Here the child begins to question perceptions and fantasies. The child at this age is influenced by and capable of narrative that reflects the reality of life. At this stage, the child is not always capable of reflecting on the meaning behind the story, but tends to understand it literally.
Stage three is referred to as Synthetic/Conventional Faith. This stage ties in with the beginning of the Piagetian phase of formal operational thinking, (ages eleven/twelve).
Here, the young individual develops the ability to reflect on his/her own ways of thinking. Importance is given to the opinions and feedback from peers and significant others. It is a time of forming a self-image and identity. One of the characteristics of this stage is that God tends to be seen as the supreme Friend, Companion and Personal Reality who affirms the individual’s identity as someone valued and loveable. This stage can be extended to cover adulthood.
The fourth stage is Individuative/Projective Faith. This stage is not reached by everybody, but for those who do reach this stage; it is marked by reflection upon the self as separate from all that has so far defined it. The focus here is on boundaries. Where does the self end and significant others begin? The later this stage of faith occurs in an individual’s life, the more traumatic it can be, since it necessitates a reworking of all relationships.
Stage five is Conjunctive Faith, a ‘midlife way of being in faith’.<2> This stage can start around thirty-five or forty. The reworking of relationships in Stage four, is now made more ‘permeable’ and ‘porous’.<3> At this stage, the individual develops an awareness into the subconscious elements that dictates behaviour and responses to others. The individual becomes more open to, and accepting of the mysteries of life. God is experience as simultaneously, close or real, and mysterious and unavailable. The truth is accepted as having many dimensions which must be ‘held together in paradoxical tension’<4>.
The final stage is Universalizing Faith. Only a select few will ever reach this stage. The centre of experience is no longer the self, but the self’s participation in the work of God or the ultimate reality. These people are capable of negating the self in order to affirm God, yet, by affirming God, they become more vibrant and powerful.
<1> JAMES W. FOWLER, Stages of faith. The psychology of human development and the quest for meaning, San Francisco 1995.
<2> JAMES FOWLER, Stages of faith. An interview with James Fowler
Published: February 25, 2008
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