On the basis of structured interviews with a wide range of people,2 Fowler describes six stages of faith development. Just as there are commonly observed 'normal' patterns or stages of human development - childhood, adolescence, adulthood, to name some - so too, Fowler says, there is a process in the development of faith, with stages in which recognisable, distinctive characteristics of faith are observable.

We may speculate on whether the children, young men and fathers addressed by the Apostle John3 were in those categories on the basis of natural chronology or whether he was referring to those who were such in terms of their spiritual growth and development. Certainly John not only addresses such categories but refers to spiritual or faith characteristics common to people at that stage of life, be it chronological or spiritual.

In other passages of scripture4 we see the analogy of normal human growth and development being explicitly used to make points concerning spiritual growth. We see here an expectation that characteristics of our faith will change over time. It is just as surprising and distressing when a person's faith development becomes fixed at an immature stage, as it is when physical or emotional development is stunted or delayed.

We need to distinguish here between 'faith' as a verb (something we do or the way that we do it) and 'faith' as a noun (something that we have) - ie
between the container and the contents. Both are vitally important, but our
focus here is on 'faith' as a verb.

While Fowler himself is a Christian minister, the people interviewed in his
research included people from other faith traditions as well as those who
claimed no religious allegiance. What emerged from the research were six
recognisable stages of development, or six ways of structuring and giving
meaning to life. The content of people's belief is highly dependent on their
religious (or non-religious) allegiance, but the structure or shape of that
belief is largely independent of the particular content.

"Faith, it appears, is generic, a universal feature of human living,
recognisably similar everywhere despite the remarkable variety of forms and
contents of religious practice and belief. Faith is an orientation of the
total person, giving purpose and goal to one's hopes and strivings, thoughts
and actions."

Here then are Fowler's stages of Faith Development:

Infancy and Undifferentiated Faith

Stage 1: Intuitive-Projective Faith

Stage2: Mythic-Literal Faith

Stage 3: Synthetic-Conventional Faith

Stage 4: Individuative-Reflective Faith

Stage 5: Conjunctive Faith

Stage 6: Universalising Faith

The pre-stage of Infancy and Undifferentiated Faith and stages 1 and 2 have
characteristics that are consistent with the emerging conceptual, cognitive
and emotional abilities associated with infancy, early and late childhood.
Understanding of the detailed characteristics of faith in these stages and
the challenges of transition from stage to stage is important for parents
and those working in Christian education with children. It also has
significant implications for structuring worship experiences where young and
old participate together.

In the context of why people leave the church, however, it is the
differences between stages 3, 4 and 5 which are most significant. Most
people between teenage and old age are in one of these stages.
Synthetic-Conventional Faith

Stage 3 typically begins in adolescence, says Fowler, but for many adults it
becomes a permanent resting place. "It is a 'conformist' stage in the sense
that it is acutely tuned to the expectations and judgements of significant
others but does not have a sure enough grasp on its own autonomous judgement
to construct and maintain an independent perspective.

"While beliefs and values are deeply felt, they typically are tacitly held .
. . there has not been occasion to step outside them to reflect on or
examine them explicitly or systematically." Authority is given to those in
traditional authority roles or to the consensus of a valued group.

The dangers of this stage are twofold. The expectations and evaluations of
others can be so deeply internalised that later autonomy of judgement and
action can be jeopardised; or interpersonal betrayals can give rise to great
despair.

Key characteristics of stage 3 faith include:

1. The need to conform to the norms, beliefs and practices of the group.
We see a strong parallel to this in the importance and influence of the peer
group in adolescence. The need to belong and to show this by having the
'right' clothing, hairstyle, music, jargon - by being seen in the right
places with the right people.

The parallels in faith are evident - associating strongly with 'our' church,
theology and worship style, as opposed to that of others. Holding key
leaders or people of influence in high regard and modelling strongly on them
in terms of practice, lifestyle - sometimes even mannerisms!

Each stage of faith is good and healthy in itself. Certainly much healthy
growth comes from modelling on and emulating a good role model. Difficulties
arise, however, if growth is arrested artificially rather than being
encouraged and embraced, even if this means going beyond or in a different
direction to an earlier role model.

2. Partial development of self-identity and self-assurance about the beliefs
held.

Largely the beliefs and practices of this stage are maintained and sustained
by the group rather than the individual. In stage 3 the need to examine
these beliefs critically has not yet emerged, nor is it encouraged in groups
which are predominantly stage 3 in their corporate faith.

Within the corporate life of the group, stage 3 Christians are secure in
themselves and in their beliefs. Outside the group, however, they may be
troubled by questions and doubts and may be unable to articulate, either to
themselves or others, quite what they believe or why.

3. Expectations and evaluations of others outweigh autonomous evaluation.
People in stage 3 are particularly vulnerable to abuse of all kinds because
the opinions and decisions of those in leadership roles carry such
authority. The stage 3 Christian has not developed the solid autonomous
belief to challenge or often even to question this.

This is a stage in which the inequality of power between leaders and
followers is great. Both the awful prevalence of professional sexual abuse
where a professional person (doctor, lawyer, minister, priest) abuses a
client or parishioner and the mass suicides of Jonestown are evidences of
exploitation of this vulnerability of people with stage 3 faith.

While voices are almost universally raised in outrage when such abuse is
uncovered there seem to be few, particularly in our churches, addressing the
need to support and encourage people to evaluate their own and others'
beliefs, practices and behaviour and to think for themselves.

4. Despair arising from interpersonal betrayal.
What are stage 3 Christians to do when a respected role model lets them
down? When leaders' private lives or behaviours are damagingly different
from their public personas and what they demand of their followers, or when
they fall and deny the faith? Because the locus of faith and security for
stage 3 believers lies largely outside themselves, such a failure or
betrayal by a respected leader is a failure of their own faith. Despondency
and despair will commonly accompany such betrayal.

Individuative-Reflective Faith
"For a genuine move to stage 4 to occur there must be an interruption of
reliance on external sources of authority. The 'tyranny of the they'- or the
potential for it - must be undermined. In addition to the kind of critical
reflection on one's previous system . . . of values . . . there must be . .
. a relocation of authority within the self.

"While others and their judgements will remain important to the
Individuative-Reflective person, their expectations, advice and counsel will
be submitted to an internal panel of experts who reserve the right to choose
and who are prepared to take responsibility for their choices. I sometimes
call this the development of an executive ego."

Stage 4's strength, says Fowler, has to do with its capacity for critical
reflection on identity (self) and outlook (ideology). Its dangers are an
excessive confidence in the conscious mind and in critical thought, and an
over assimilation of the 'reality' and the perspectives of others into its
own world view.

Here we see development. Reliance on external sources of authority has been
balanced by the individual claiming the right to choose and taking personal
responsibility for those choices.

People may hold the same beliefs at stage 4 as they did at stage 3. However
stage 3 people held them because they were the beliefs of the group as
expressed by its leaders or senior members, while stage 4 people hold them
because they have reflected on them, examined them against competing beliefs
and found them to be compelling. Of course in all likelihood the transition
from stage 3 to stage 4 will result in some change to the content of belief
as well.

Stage 4 people may challenge or question accepted group practices or
traditions. The enthusiastic expression of their newly discovered critical
faculties is easily misinterpreted as rebelliousness or undermining of unity
and authority, rather than as evidence of healthy growth.

Stage 4 is often marked by polarisation. Stage 4 Christians may see things
in very black and white categories. Having discovered clearly what they do
believe, they also see clearly what they don't believe.

This may lead them on a campaign to set others straight in their beliefs.
Their enthusiasm to 'convert' others to their newly discovered sense of
freedom can be threatening, if not damaging, to those who have not yet
developed the resources to evaluate their beliefs and take responsibility
for such freedom.

Conjunctive Faith
"Unusual before mid-life, Stage 5 knows the sacrament of defeat and the
reality of irrevocable commitments and acts. . . . Alive to paradox and the
truth of apparent contradictions, this stage strives to unify opposites in
mind and experience. It generates and maintains vulnerability to the strange
truths of those who are 'other'."

The new strength of this stage, says Fowler, is a capacity to own one's most
significant beliefs, while recognising that they are relative, partial and
imperfect perceptions of reality. Its danger lies in the direction of a
paralysing inaction, giving rise to complacency or cyclical withdrawal.10
In stage 5 the pendulum has swung back from the somewhat narrow
'certainties' of stage 4. No longer does this truth insist that another
perspective is therefore false - now both may be seen to be true, perhaps
with some tension but without conflict. The stage 5 person is at ease in the
presence of difference and paradox.

The stage 5 person is beginning to grasp that many of the issues of faith
are larger than the human intellect's ability to grasp in their entirety.
Because of this, stage 5 Christians may develop a new or renewed
appreciation for symbol, in language and worship, and for liturgical forms
of worship - symbol and ritual providing helpful connections to the
transcendent realities of faith.

In contrast, the intense brightness and starkness of stage 4 descriptions of
faith and modes of worship may now be difficult for people who have moved to
stage 5, where once they seemed so relevant. These earlier forms now seem
shallow compared to the unfolding depths of the newly discovered stage of
faith.

Universalising Faith
According to Fowler very few people emerge into this stage. It is perhaps
the preserve of those who are regarded as 'saints' or whose lives have a
profound impact in areas of social justice or reform. They have a capacity
for relating to and influencing people from widely differing backgrounds,
cultures and religions. Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa are among
those seen to have entered this stage.