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The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
Taken from: Stages of Faith, by James W. Fowler
Human developmental faith stages
The Stages
Infancy
Intuitive-Projective, 2 -6, 7 years old
Mythic-Literal, school age
Conventional, puberty/adulthood
Reflective, adulthood (greater maturity)
Conjunctive, adults whose spiritual path is their priority
Universalizing, adult who gives their life
Infancy
Before two years of age
Positive: trust and mutuality
Limitation: Lack of sufficient childhood nurturing
Intuitive-Projective Faith
Ages 2 -6 or 7
Positive: Birth of imagination and understanding the world through images
Limitation: Lack of sufficient input from parents and others to help the child sort out fantasy from reality. Adults exploiting the child—God will get you! The devil will get you!
Mythic-literal Faith
School age
Positive: Child begins to integrate beliefs and behaviors. Stories and myths help give meaning to experience.
Limitation: Taking everything literally, trying to be perfect, feeling like a bad person if neglected or mistreated.
Conventional Faith
Puberty/Adulthood
Positive: a knowing of who I am and what I want to do with my life. Faith is usually integrated if the person is to continue growing.
Limitation: May be too sure of one’s beliefs, too much in conformity with one’s religious culture, one’s faith may fail in difficult times.
Reflective Faith
College age/Adulthood
Positive: Capacity for critical reflection with minimal or no guilt
Limitation: Excessive confidence in the conscious mind and critical thought, loss of the mystical, the mythical, the surprise of the transcendent
Conjunctive Faith
Adults who have made their faith a priority
Positive: The rise of the ironic] imagination, ability to hold paradox [characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is]
Limitation: A lethargy due to no clear statement of truth, old understandings are insufficient to energize, new understandings have not yet arisen.
Universalizing Faith
The called, the saint, the prophet
Positive: The person becomes "love and justice" to the world.
Mother Theresa
Billy Graham
Delai Lama
Abraham Heshel
Rumi
Buddha
Martin Luther King
Limitation: Physical