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Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development

by James W. Fowler

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A developmental framework for how people make meaning

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A developmental framework for how people make meaning

Drawing on interviews with nearly six hundred people across ages and religious positions, James W. Fowler examines faith as a broad human activity: the values, images, and commitments through which a person interprets life. The book places this inquiry in conversation with developmental thinkers including Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg, then sets out six stages spanning childhood through mature, self-transcending forms of faith. Its framework does not treat faith as identical to formal religious belief; it also considers how people organize purpose and meaning across differing convictions. The revised edition offers a structured lens for reflecting on personal development and the changing commitments that shape a life.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Adults interested in psychology of religion and human development
  • Readers exploring faith beyond denominational belief
  • Students of meaning-making, values, and moral development

Themes

Faith developmentMeaning and purposeHuman developmentValues and commitmentsReligious and nonreligious belief

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Dr. James Fowler has asked these questions, and others like them, of nearly six hundred people. He has talked with men, women, and children of all ages, from four to eighty-eight, including Jews, Catholics, Protestants, agnostics, and atheists. In many cases, the interviews became in-depth conversations that provided rare, intimate glimpses into the various ways our lives have meaning and purpose, windows into what this books calls faith.

Faith, as approached here, is not necessarily religious, nor is it to be equated with belief. Rather, faith is a person's way of leaning into and making sense of life. More verb that noun, faith is the dynamic system of images, values, and commitments that guide one's life. It is thus universal: everyone who chooses to go on living operated by some basic faith.

Building on the contributions of such key thinkers as Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg, Fowler draws on a wide range of scholarship, literature, and firsthand research to present expertly and engagingly the six stages that emerge in working out the meaning of our lives--from the intuitive, imitative faith of childhood through conventional and then more independent faith to the universalizing, self-transcending faith of full maturity. Stages of Faith helps us to understand our own pilgrimage of faith, the passages of our own quest for meaning and value.

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