Faith Development c/o Alan Jamieson... [2]

Intuitive-Projective (The Innocent)

Eryn looked at us on Christmas Eve while we were eating a customary meal in our house, with a knowing wink she speaks! "It's OK Mum I don't believe in Father Christmas .... I know .... I saw Dad come into my room last year!!" A significant transition!

Faith Development is something I have been interested in for quite sometime (Faith Development: Von Hügel) as I continue to explore this for myself and try to help others finding the dynamic of their faith sometimes painful and disorientating. A significant transition so often feels like a loss of faith - to discover that it is a deepening is comforting if not bewildering!

Okay, Fowler is not that user friendly - 'Intuitive-Projective' really makes you want to read on! Alan Jamieson seasons and makes Fowler a little more palatable to those without a psychological background by weaving in terms from McCollough, C. (1983). Heads of Heaven, Feet of Clay: Ideas and Stories for Adult Faith Education. Cleveland: Pilgrim Pr.

This stage articulated by Fowler has a real flavour of Innocence where people's faith is shaped by a childlike 'seamless world of fantasy, stories, experiences and imagery'. Faith has a feel of 'fairy-tale' about it and lacks 'thoughtful coherence'. Fowler would indicate that life is therefore a collage of disorganised images - the transition through which is a growing desire for clarification of reality and fantasy a desire for a framework.

Faith as a series of significant transitions seems to make sense to me, making sense of such transitions takes time!

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