The life cycle of faith – stages of spiritual development...

College has been a great 9 years of resourcing regarding both mission and spiritual formation, not least regarding the concept of faith development. The development of abstract thinking in all areas of adulthood but religion seems odd if not a little dangerous and so it has been good to explore these concepts with staff and cadets while at college.

Good friend and successor David Alton shared this resource with me. Here's a snippet:

"Faith – like life – is a journey of growth, development, becoming. It involves change, movement, loss and gain. A number of phases or stages of the faith journey can be identified, mirroring the stages of human psychological development from infant to adult, or (staying with the cocoon/chrysalis metaphor) with the stages of a butterfly’s life cycle."

(more here)




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