Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

    .0 May help some people identify where they are in faith development.
    Hopefully, .0 will aid in appreciating the stages of faith that others
    may be coming from.
    
    Peace,
    Richard

    Richard,
    
    One of the biggest stumbling blocks to communications among Christians
    I believe is based on a lack of understanding of these stages of
    faith.
    
    A person in a lower level, say level three, will speak and preach
    as if theirs is the highest level and totally fail to reach those
    on levels above them. People on the higher levels on the other
    hand can come over as too 'intellectual' or condescending to those
    on lower levels.
    
    Bonnie

    Thanks for entering this summary of the 5 stages of faith Richard.
    Fowler's book is part of my course study this semester and I'm very
    much looking forward to reading it.  
    
    The only drawback I can see with this model and suggestions for its 
    use in this file, is that given its hierachical nature, it can easily 
    facilitate holier-than-thou and/or attitudes of victimization amongst 
    participants in this file.  I would really hate to see this information
    used to promote "spiritual bigotry" amongst ourselves (Ha!  I'm on
    level 5 and you're on level 2, so *I* know better, am more spiritual,
    or whatever) or embed those attitudes even deeper than what they 
    already are.
    
    A good companion reading to this book is _The Evolving Self_ by Robert
    Kegan, wherein he refences similar stages in human development and how
    people create their world-views and make meaning out of their life
    experiences.  I think Kegan's book may be very helpful to achieve a 
    greater understanding of Fowler's work on faith development.  No level is
    necessarily "better" or "superior" to another.  Each level plays 
    extremely important roles in the art of human being.
    
    jmho,
    
    Karen  

    Didn't Scott Peck come up with some sort of spiritual hierarchy also? 
    I seem to recall that his model had four stages instead of five, but
    I'm not sure.  Perhaps Cindy Painter knows (where are you, Cindy?)
    
    -- Mike

    
    re: .5 (Mike V.)
    
    Yes, Peck's system had four stages, many of which follow the 
    stages mentioned by Richard if you look closely.
    
    Jung also came up with some stages of development for the anima
    and animus - each consisted of 4 stages.
    
    It was his belief that the psyche naturally develops in intervals
    of 4,8,12,16, etc.
    
    guy

    The first time I ran into this phenomenon was in a sermon where
    the speaker compaired the levels of faith to the developmental
    stages of personality (?Mazlow? or somebody?).
    
    From what I recall it went essentially like this:
    
    ...  if you are at the level of life where you are concerned
    about shelter and food and drink, then you will listen to
    and believe a person who preaches that Christ will take care of
    those needs. You won't be able to see any higher needs until
    your needs at that level are cared for. You may further, think
    that those whose life development level has moved beyond
    food and shelter, and thus have a different approach to faith
    are not truely believers because they no longer follow what
    seems so self evident to you. Such people may be regarded as
    back sliders who've fallen away from the true faith. In turn
    those at a different level may well be condescending to their
    brothers and sisters at the food and shelter level, or think
    their faith is tiresome ("I've been there and grown beyond that")
    or childish.
    
    We need to be careful to respect the spiritual needs of people
    at all levels of development. Especially those who are in
    different places than our own.
    
    Bonnie

    Thanks, Guy.  I would be interested in seeing those four stages listed
    for purposes of comparison with Fowler's five stages.
    
    -- Mike

    
    Re.0
    
           Stage six sounds like some attempts at a description
        of satori (enlightenment) that I have read.
    
                                                      Mike

Another closely related book is:

"I'm Saved, You're Saved -- Maybe" by Jack Renard Pressau (John Knox Press,
1977)

According to the author, "This book is a giant hypothesis.  It is a grandchild
of Piaget's theory on cognitive development, the son of Kohlberg's theory of
moral development, and... the half-brother of James Flowler's stages-of-faith
development concept, which is receiving empirical testing at Harvard now.
(Hypotheses tend to get extraspecial treatment at Harvard.)  Fowler's work
differs from mine in breadth and focus.  He researches faith-ing (the process
of thinking one's religion) in general whereas I have limited my focus to the
faithing of just one doctrine, salvation.  Fowler emphasizes how thought
processes change religious thinking with each moral stage.  I go beyond process
to spell out how the __content__ of 'what I mean when I think of "salvation"'
changes with each stage, and I make applications for each stage."  (p. 115)

The book addresses these questions:
	Is there one or are there six stages (or three
	Levels) of acceptance of Christ?  Is this Biblical?
	Does a person's reason for continuing to follow the
	Savior change as his or her moral understanding matures?
	And does it slip back when that morality regresses?
	Also, how do people interpret their former stages of
	Christ-commitments as they look back on them from
	higher moral stages? (p. 17)

Kohlberg's system consists of three levels of morality, based on six stages of
thinking, derived from presenting moral problems to __males__ ages 9-23, from
locations all over the world.  Conclusion is that children tend to reason at
the first two moral stages; some adolescents and some adults are able to make
stage 5 and 6 arguments.  People can generally understand and argue at one
stage _beyond_ their usual behavior.

Pressau provides Biblical illustrations for each stage and discusses each stage
from a theological perspective.  He says:
	My contention is that whether or not everyone knows it,
	the church has been preaching the gospel, conceptuatlized
	at all the moral Levels of the hearers, ever since the
	time of Jesus and the apostles.  And, since good teachers,
	preachers, and debaters must illustrate their understanding
	of the faith at the various moral Levels, as Paul did when
	he quoted the pagan poets, I contend that the illustrations
	of salvation are good clues to the moral Level at which the
	gospel presenter is aiming.  (p. 72)


BTW, a different 4-year study begun in 1981 by a Harvard Graduate School of
Education research team, asserts that, unlike boys, a majority of girls make
decisions based on how their decisions will
		__affect relationships or hurt people__
rather than on absolutes of right and wrong!  This method of solving moral
dilemmas -- so as to cause the fewest rifts in relations -- is called the
"ethic of care" in the study by psychologist Carol Gilligan....first published
in "In a Difference Voice," Gilligan's 1982 book on the psychology of women.
(from The Boston Globe)

I believe that Gilligan began her study in large part because Kohlberg's study
(along with most developmental psych. studies) was based exclusively on males.
Maybe someday we'll see a true synthesis...

My next note will summarize Kohlberg's classification.
 

-- Nancy

		KOHLBERG'S CLASSIFICATION OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT


Summary of explanation of Kohlberg in the book:
"I'm Saved, You're Saved -- Maybe" by Jack Renard Pressau (John Knox Press,
1977)

LEVEL:  Preconventional Morality - environmental reward and punishment; selfish
        justification from the individual perspective

	Stage 1:  Punishment and Obedience (present and personal)
		  ("Big Stick" diplomacy; the point of view of most drivers
                    re: speeding)
        Stage 2:  Instrumental Relavist (enlightened self-interest)
                  (Drive Safely: The Life You Save May Be Your Own)


LEVEL:  Conventional - reward and punishment given by the group identified
	with; group-selfish appeal

	Stage 3:  Interpersonal Concordance
		  (My country right or wrong; Honk if you love Jesus)
        Stage 4:  Law and Order
                  (maintain the social order for its sake and for ours)


LEVEL:  Postconventional - autonomous or principled

	Stage 5:  Social Contract, Legalistic
		  (All groups, including mine, have equal rights; we must play
		   by the rules until they are changed; the President upholds
		   the Constitution, including the parts he disagrees with)
	Stage 6:  Universal Ethical Principle
		  (The Bill of Rights; the Geneva Convention


-- Nancy

                       SNELLING'S STYLES OF FAITH
    
o Style 1. IMAGINATIVE (ages 3-7, preschool)
Understanding of LOVE is vague and concrete: "hugging".  Understanding
of TRUTH is vague and negative: not telling the truth "gets me in trouble."

o Style 2. LITERAL (grade school, junior high and older)
LOVE is how I feel about the people whom I like, whom I need, and whom are
useful to me.  TRUTH is literal, black or white, whatever can be concretely
proven.

o Style 3. CONVENTIONAL/INTERPERSONAL (older grade school to adult)
LOVE is seen in terms of of a focus on interpersonal relationships based
in feelings; "how can I love someone I don't like?"  TRUTH is abstract,
absolute, and derived through dependence on external sources.  It has
one meaning; all else is false.

o Style 4. REFLECTIVE/INSTITUTIONAL (older senior high, adult)
LOVE can be abstract, moves beyond the interpersonal; we can love those
we neither know nor like, if their value system is similar to ours.  TRUTH
is seen as "validity," determined through processes of critical thinking,
logic, analysis (inner-dependence).

o Style 5. INTEGRATIVE (5-10% of all adults)
Love means to value all persons equally.  It does not depends on liking or
on value systems.  Each person has intrinsic value.  TRUTH is that which
results from the combined wisdom of the community of the church, achieved
through dialogue, rationality, intuition, experience, listening to one
another and to the tradition of the world (interdependence).

re: .8 (Mike V.)
    
    Here are the stages you asked to see.  The information here is sketchy
    at best, and it should be understood that the figures or "archetypes"
    described are what would arise in dreams, or perhaps in creative
    efforts.  So there may not be a direct and simple correspondence to
    other stages mentioned in this note string unless one really looks
    beyond what is said here.
    
    The selections below were written by Marie-Louise von Franz for Jung's
    book "Man and His Symbols".
    
    guy
    
    
    
 The Anima:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"As Jung has demonstrated, the nucleus of the psyche (the Self) normally exp-
resses itself in some kind of fourfold structure.  The number four is also 
connected with the anima because, as Jung noted, there are four stages in its 
development.  The first stage is best symbolized by the figure of Eve, which 
represents purely instinctual and biological relations.  The second can be 
seen in Faust's Helen: She personifies a romantic and aesthetic level that is, 
however, still characterized by sexual elements.  The third is represented, 
for instance, by the Virgin Mary - a figure who raises love (eros) to the 
heights of spiritual devotion.  The fourth type is symbolized by Sapientia, 
wisdom transcending even the most holy and the most pure.  Of this another 
symbol is the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon. (In the psychic development 
of modern man this stage is rarely reached.  The Mona Lisa comes nearest to 
such a wisdom anima.)
  At this stage I am only pointing out that the concept of fourfoldness freq-
uently occurs in certain types of symbolic material.  The essential aspects of
this will be discussed later."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    
The Animus:
________________________________________________________________________________

  "The animus, just like the anima, exhibits four stages of development.  He
first appears as a personification of mere physical power - for instance, as
an athletic champion or "muscle man."  In the next stage he possesses initiat-
ive and the capacity for planned action.  In the third phase, the animus becomes
the "word," often appearing as a professor or clergyman.  Finally, in his 
fourth manifestation, the animus is the incarnation of *meaning*.  On this
highest level he becomes (like the anima) a mediator of the religious experience
whereby life acquires new meaning.  He gives the woman spiritual firmness, an
invisible inner support that compensates for her outer softness.  The animus
in his most developed form sometimes connects the woman's mind with the spirit-
ual evolution of her age, and can thereby make her even more receptive than
a man to new creative ideas.  It is for this reason that in earlier times women
were used by many nations as diviners and seers.  The creative boldness of their
positive animus at times expresses thoughts and ideas that stimulate men to 
new enterprises."
________________________________________________________________________________

    
    A really OLD note...
    
    Some information on Peck's four stages of spiritual growth can be found
    in DEJAVU, topic 457, I believe.
    
    Cindy