Stages Of Faith Development Research Articles

Centers of value and the quest for meaning in faith development: A measurement approach.

James Fowler’s model of faith development conceptualized “faith” as the quest for and maintenance of meaning oriented around centers of value which may or may not be religious or spiritual in nature. Although this model foreshadowed later work in meaning in life, substantial bodies of literature have developed in each area, almost entirely independently of the other. Integration has been hindered by measurement difficulties in faith development work. Fowler’s stages of faith development and their reformulation as Streib’s religious styles are usually measured through either a lengthy Faith Development Interview or short measures that do not assess the breadth of domains covered in the interview. These short measures are in many cases oriented around religious faith and impossible for a non-believer to answer. Embedded within the original model and the interview are aspects of faith development including perspective taking, social horizon, morality, locus of authority, form of world coherence, and symbolic function. A new Centers of Value and Quest for Meaning Scale is proposed to assess the aspects, allow non-believers to respond, tap centers of value that are not religious, and eventually address the theoretical assumption of structural wholeness across aspects. In a series of exploratory factor analyses, factors for each adult stage/style emerged for most of the aspects. This supports the potential importance of assessing the aspects and allows for more than one methodology to assess them.

Integrating Resilience, Reciprocating Social Relationships, and Christian Formation

Spiritual maturity is the goal of Christian formation and is frequently understood through stages of faith development. Popular stage theories often lack diverse cultural representation and alone are insufficient in promoting spiritual maturity and resilience. Integrating elements of the developmental models of Lev Vygotsky and James Marcia through reciprocal relationships in faith communities allow for the expansion of the capacity of the believer to bounce back from adversity. Mentors can provide direct instruction and promote independent cognitive growth, construction of resilience, and commitment to faith despite crisis experiences. The result is a more durable, mature, adaptable, and stable believer.

Grief as a Mystical Journey: Fowler's Stages of Faith Development and Their Relation to Post-Traumatic Growth.

This paper explores the relationship between embedded theological assumptions and the ways in which one copes with loss and bereavement. Based on James Fowler's research on Stages of Faith Development, the paper examines common Western psycho-spiritual beliefs related to loss, trauma, and grief, and proposes that profound loss experiences have the potential to lead the griever to a shift in theological thinking. It addresses the ways in which a "crisis of faith" triggered by loss or trauma prompts the questioning of closely-held beliefs, which can lead to an expanded spiritual perspective that can be beneficial to the healing process.

Keeping (or Losing) the Faith: Reflections on Spiritual Struggles and Their Resolution by College Seniors.

In this qualitative study, researchers examined how college seniors experienced and resolved spiritual struggles in college. Results indicated that academic activities provided opportunities to question, learn, and grow spiritually. Although a variety of external factors influenced students' explorations of their spirituality, participants looked inward to resolve their struggles in deeply personal ways. Spiritual struggle was often manifested as a reexamination of students' pre-college values, an ongoing process for many students. Researchers identified four ways of describing students' state of resolution: (1) recommitting to an existing faith, (2) slightly readjusting their spiritual or religious values, (3) blending spiritual traditions, or (4) losing their faith. The religious and spiritual life of college students has been a concern of higher education in the United States since its very foundation (Thelin, 2004), but the amount and scope of available research on students' spiritual development does not suggest a centuries-old interest. Although recent literature reflects heightened interest in the spiritual dimensions of students' lives, research remains limited and disjointed, especially in comparison to the body of literature that exists on other aspects of identity development (Evans, Forney, & Guido-DiBrito, 1998; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). The present phenomenological study builds on the existing literature on spiritual development and seeks to add depth to the conversation by qualitatively exploring how college students experience their own spiritual development. The research team specifically wanted to understand how a group of college students perceived and experienced spiritual struggles. Researchers also sought to understand the degree to which these students resolved their spiritual struggles during their college years. Researchers chose to focus on seniors in order to capture a reflective view of students' entire college experience. Review of the Literature Spirituality and Identity Development The results of several studies by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) make it clear that spirituality and spiritual development are issues that educators need to be prepared to address with college students (Bryant, 2006; Bryant & Astin, 2008; Bryant, Choi, & Yasuno, 2003; HERI, 2005). Among 112,000 students surveyed by HERI (2005), 80% reported having an interest in spirituality; approximately three fourths agreed they are searching for meaning/purpose in life; and three fourths also reported having discussions about the meaning of life with friends. Almost half claimed to seek out opportunities for spiritual growth. In the 2000-2001 academic year, the percentage of first-year students who said it was essential or very important to integrate spirituality into their lives jumped from 46% in the fall to 56% in the spring (Bryant et al.). Much of the existing literature regarding spiritual development is theoretical in nature. Fowler's (1981) text on the stages of faith development and the structuring of meaning serves as a foundation for much of today's scholarship on spiritual development among young adults. Subsequent research has explored the relationships between student development theory and spiritual development (Jablonski, 2001; Love, 2001; Love, 2002; Love & Guthrie, 1999; Parks, 2000). Parks identified three essential aspects of faith development: forms of knowing, forms of dependence, and forms of community. Forms of knowing involve cognitive aspects, through which the college student recognizes the need to shape the future and to construct faith and meaning in a contextual world. Forms of dependence involve feelings; during college, students generally discover an emerging sense of innerdependence and self-authority. Forms of community involve social aspects of faith development, including interpersonal, social, and cultural facets. …

Spirituality in Counseling: A Faith Development Perspective

This article describes the use of Fowler's (1981) faith development theory (FDT) in counseling. FDT is a stage model of spiritual and religious development that allows counselors to identify both adaptive qualities and potential encumbrances in spiritual or religious expression. FDT offers a nonsectarian model of spiritual growth that permits assessment of spiritual development apart from the specific contents of various faith traditions. This article summarizes Fowler's faith stages and demonstrates their clinical utility through composite vignettes.

A Biblical Model of Stages of Spiritual Development: The Journey According to John

Does the Bible present a “map” of the journey by which a believer can determine how far he or she has moved toward Christian maturity? 1 John 2:12-14 provides such a biblical paradigm, distinguishing three discrete stages of faith development: Childhood, Young Adulthood, and Parenthood. Working with this passage, I explore eight characteristics, or milestones, that a believer needs to attend to and complete en route to Christian maturity. Looking to this Johannine model, Christian travelers can both take note of the distance already traveled as well as plan for the distance yet to be covered. This article outlines a path for developing deeper, more mature Christ-followers.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Faith Development Portrait

J. Robert Oppenheimer was among the most important and enigmatic figures in 20th century science. He is best known for successfully directing the Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. Subsequently, he became a scientist and statesman who advised the United States government in the areas of atomic weapons development and public policy. He later became subject to an investigation in 1954 into his previous political affiliations and his personal behavior that ended in the revoking of his security clearance. This essay seeks to chronicle Oppenheimer's coming of age as a public intellectual with a view toward his own psychological history and most especially in relationship to the stages of faith development articulated by James Fowler and colleagues. Moreover, though not conventionally religious, Oppenheimer's life and thought were permeated with themes and ideas of a religious and ethical nature that shaped his adult character and informed his view of the world. This essay was originally presented at The Richardson History of Psychiatry Research Seminar at Weill Cornell Medical College.

The Role of Spirituality in the Rehabilitation Process

This paper examines issues of the intertwining roles of spirituality and religion, spirituality and counseling, spirituality and community, spirituality and culture, serendipity and empowerment, and the roles of stages of faith development. Conclusions for rehabilitation service providers and those whom they serve are addressed.

Fowler's Stages of Faith Development in an Honors Science‐and‐Religion Seminar

According to Paul Tillich's understanding of religion as “ultimate concern,” a religious dimension is implicit in all university curricula. A science‐and‐religion course, such as one taught at Southeast Missouri State University, can offer students the opportunity to integrate their worldview, taking seriously both religious ideas and scientific information. Assignments based on A. E. Lawson's model of a learning cycle provide a vehicle for evaluating significant student learning leading toward fuller integration. The stages of faith developed by James W. Fowler serve as a fruitfull framework for interpreting changes in student viewpoints. Fowler's six stages of faith are characterized. Examples from student writing assignments demonstrate shifts in the cognitive understanding of faith that coincide with Fowler's stages.

Invitation to the Psychology of Religion

Preface to the Second Edition. From the Preface to the First Edition. 1. Religion in Psychological Perspective. The Prevalence and Scope of Religion. Religion in Action. Psychological Questions about Religion. What is Religion? Religion as Reconnection. Personal and Social Religion. Religious Function and Religious Content. The Variety of Religious Behaviors. How do Psychologists Handle the Problem of Defining Religion? Dimensions of Religious Commitment: Logical and Descriptive. Religious Belief (The Ideological Dimension). Religious Practice (The Ritualistic Dimension). Religious Feeling (The Experiential Dimension). Religious Knowledge (The Intellectual Dimension). Religious Effects (The Consequential Dimension). The Dimensions in Combination. Status and Utility of the Multidimensional Schema. Psychological Approaches to Religion. Complementary Viewpoints within Psychology. Where do we Look for the Processes Underlying Religiousness? Relevance of the Possible Bases of Religion. Is the Psychology of Religion Valid? Is Religion Unique? Implications of the Various Positions. Approach and Plan of the Book. Orientations. Limitations. Organization. 2. Historical and Theoretical Developments. The Early Period: An Impressive Start. Starbuck and the Either-Or Philosophy. James. The Middle Period: Factors Contributing to the Decline. Theoretical Interlude. Classical Theories and Their Questions. Some Stimuli to Current Research. The Contemporary Period: The Reemergence of the Field. Indicators of the Trend. Is Psychology of Religion Influencing General Psychology? Reasons for the Trend. 3. Research in the Psychology of Religion. Philosophy of Science for Psychology of Religion. Tensions Between Psychology and Religion. The Nature of Psychological Science. Multiple Accounts of Religious Behavior. Influence of the Post-Modernism Movement. The Role Psychology Can Fulfill. Methods of Researching Religion. Strategies and Methods. Measuring Religion. 4. Religious Development in Children. Psychological Research on Religious Development. The Nature of Childhood Religion. Perception, Language, and the Meaning of Symbols: Cognitive Mechanisms. Family, Social Context, and Personal Needs: Social Learning and Attachment Processes. Cognitive Factors in Moral Development. Piaget's 2 Stages of Moral Reasoning. Piaget's 3 Stages of Cognitive Development. Kohlberg's 6 Stages of Moral Judgment. Stages of Religious Development. Elkind's Stage Theory. Research on Religious Stages. Religious Stages in Prayer. Research Possibilities and Questions. 5. Religious Development Through the Lifespan: Adolescence and Adulthood. Religion in Adolescence. How Religious are Adolescents? Global Measures of Religiousness. Doubt. Secret Doubt and Hidden Observers. Models of Lifespan Religious Development. Development of Religious Judgment: The Double Helix Model. Stages of Faith Development. Sequence of Motives: Religion as Used, Lived, and a Quest. Are Stage Models Valid?: An Assessment. Psychological Processes Prompting Adolescent Religious Development. Paradox. Cognitive, Social, and Personal Factors. Religion and Spirituality in Adulthood and Old Age. How Religious are Adults and the Aged? Baseline Data on Religion and Spirituality. Age-Trajectory Data. Spirituality and Functional Religious Development. Research Possibilities and Questions. 6. Religious Conversion and Persuasion. Prevalence and Definition of Conversion. Popular Opinion. The Prevalence of Conversion. The Definition Issue. Conversion Processes. Sudden and Gradual Conversion. Conversion Process Models. Lofland and Stark's Step Model of Conversion. Motives are Important: Glock's Expansion of Sect-Church Theory. The Relief Effect and Group Processes. The Conversion-as-Creativity Analogy. A Systemic Stage Model. Choice and the Cause of Conversion. Psychological Issues in Conversion. Religion as Crutch. Role of Emotions. The Convertible-Type Issue. The Ripe-Age Issue. Conversion as Attitude Change. Some Current Issues Pertaining to Cults. What is Cultic? Snapping and Brainwashing. Research Possibilities and Questions. 7. Religion and Experience. Relations between Religion and Experience. Experience: The Bottom Line. Ordinary and Extraordinary Experience. Experiential Responses to Religion. Phenomenological Descriptions of Becoming Religious. Conversion, Values, and Purpose in Life. Religious and Mystical Experience. The Common Core Thesis and the Problem of Language. Theories of Religious Experience. What Facilitates Religious Experience? Research Possibilities and Questions. 8. Religious Orientation, Attitudes, and Behavior. Religion and Morally Relevant Attitudes. Living One's Religion vs. Using It. Religious Orientation and Prejudice. Religious Orientation and Subjective Experience. Tentative Conclusions about the Intrinsic-Extrinsic Constructs. Religion and Social Behavior. The Good Samaritan Experiment: Evidence for Situational Factors in Helping. The Rescuers: Evidence for Personal factors in Helping. Religion and Negative Behavior. Does Religion Predict Significant Moral Behavior? Re-Evaluating the I-E Research: Quest and Fundamentalism. Religion-as-Quest. Has I-E Outlived Its Usefulness? Authoritarianism and Fundamentalism. Research Possibilities and Questions. 9. Religion, Health, and Well-Being. Impressions of Religion and Psychopathology. Religious Material in Psychic Disturbance. Relativity of Mental Health. Religion and Normal Personality. Early Childhood Factors. Authoritarianism and Dogmatism. Suggestibility and Hypnotizability. Intelligence and Achievement. Summary. Religion, Mental and Physical Health, Abnormality, and Well-Being. Religion and Mental Health. Physical Health. Fear of Death. Spiritual Well-Being. Counseling. What Conclusions Can be Drawn? Research Possibilities and Questions. 10. Evaluation and New Directions. General Evaluation. Areas and Issues. Cross-Topic Themes. Directions for Development. References. Name Index. Subject Index.