Stages of Faith: Running the River

Sometimes I re-read books because they helped me in the past and I need a refresher in the present. I just finished one in that category:  Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning published in 1981, in which James W. Fowler first put forth and developed a theory of how human faith develops and grows to maturity.

I first read Stages in 2004, while circling a spiritual whirlpool. I liken myself in that time to one of those birds frantically flying in the rafters of Costco Warehouse searching in vain for escape. Fowler’s notion of faith growing through 'stages' and his engaging description of each stage helped me come to view my fearful whirlpool experience not as dangerous, but as normal and necessary; a part of my passage from one stage of maturity to the next. Now my daughters, ages almost 13 and 15 are entering their own rapids; transitions from one stage to the next. My community of faith, Sunset Church is in transition. I needed a refresher. I got that and more.


The faith development theory emerging from Dr. Fowler's research is rather complex. The way I have come to understand it is by comparing it to a whitewater river map and our faith pilgrimage to a trip on the river, which I have depicted below (Sorry, I am no artist.) Each of his seven developmentally related stages of faith may be viewed as a rapid on the river; and some are more difficult to run than others.

 I am not going to walk you through the stages except to point out that in Stages 0 to 3 individuals in one way or another rely on some authority outside themselves for spiritual beliefs. 

The transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4 is a Class V rapid. Those that make the transition begin a radical shift from dependence upon another to making their faith their own. Fowler says, "For a genuine move to stage 4 to occur there must be an interruption of reliance on external sources of authority ... There must be ... a relocation of authority within the self"

If you want to know more now I point you to this interview transcript during which Dr. Fowler illuminates each stage or this article.

What I want to draw your attention to is the big picture. 


Big Idea #1: The River is Universal

The river trip is universal because all human beings are on a quest to find meaning and make sense of life and it begins at birth.

Fowler says that faith is not the same as religion or belief and that faith is not always religious in content or context. He says that, "Faith is a person’s or group’s way of moving into the force field of life." He believes that faith in this generic sense is universal for all human beings. 

"Faith, rather than belief or religion, is the most fundamental category in the human quest for relation to transcendence. Faith, it appears, is generic, a universal feature of human living, recognizably similar everywhere despite the remarkable variety of forms and contents of religious practice and belief." (Fowler, Harper Collins Paperback, 1997, pg. 14)

I picture it like this: I am in my boat and my faith journey does include religion--I am a Christian. You are in your boat and it includes Judaism. The river is filled with boats: Buddhist boats, atheist boats, agnostic boats...

Big Idea #2 People Run the River at their Own Pace
Faith development is not a college degree program. The point of the stages is to get a rough idea of what the journey might be like in a particular section of river. We are not to push ourselves or others to ever higher stages of faith. It was this level of knowledge, for example that helped me understand how to live in the whirlpool rather than fight it.  Growth to maturity in faith runs like a river and we go with the flow;

Big Idea #3 We Form Communities of Faith
We tend not to run the river alone because faith is both social and relational. We form communities of shared interpretation. (e.g. church, synagogue, mosque, temple, local Sierra Club group, family, etc.) There is an inherent danger in our communities of faith becoming somewhat coercive in faith development. This is when patterns of nurture and practice within the community are designed to lead people up to a certain faith stage, but not beyond it. Members moving beyond the norm may feel pressure or conflict. His research found that the average modal development stage for American churches and synagogues to be about stage 3-synthetic conventional faith. Mismatches are painful!

He goes on to point out that the modern tendency to equate faith with belief turns people away:

"If faith is reduced to belief in credal statements and doctrinal formulations, then sensitive and responsible persons are likely to judge that they must live life 'without faith.' But if faith is understood as trust in another and as loyalty to a transcendent center of value and power, then the issue of faith--and the possibility of religious faith--becomes lively and open again." (Fowler, Harper Collins Paperback, 1997, pg. 14)

Big Idea #4: Communities of Faith Have People at All Faith Stages
Since everyone is moving down the river at their own pace, our communities of faith are filled with people in every stage. There may be tension between people at different stages of faith. For example, people in the stage above you may seem like heretics while the people behind you seem like rubes.
 Today I am starting the next book in my stack: Love Wins by Rob Bell (Harper Collins, 2011). I am stopped at page viii of the Preface:

"I've written this book for all those, everywhere, who have heard some version of the Jesus story that caused their pulse rate to rise, their stomach to churn, and their heart to utter those resolute words, 'I would never be a part of that.'"

Heretic, or fellow traveler, or rube? Hmm, won't know until I finish reading it!