Today Jon Westover returns to the Podcast to have a discussion with me regarding Theories of Development. We Discuss James Fowler’s Stages of Faith, William G. Perry’s Scheme of Cognitive and Ethical Development, and Jon Paulien’s Stages of Religious Faith. We talk about the Dark Night of The Soul and how one can safely transition through one’s faith with more confidence, empathy, understanding, and the tools to assist you.
http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/fowler.htm
http://www.jmu.edu/geology/evolutionarysystems/protected/handouts/willperry2.pdf
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22100469/Perry%20Scheme.pdf
http://www.thebattleofarmageddon.com/stages_of_faith.pdf
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Hello Jon and Bill,
I was reading posts on Stay.lds and followed a link here to this site. I am glad I found you. I am in the the middle of listening to your podcast about Faith Transitions and I am processing the information… having to one else to process this with I was hoping for some input.
A little background, for a long time now I have felt uncomfortable with the typical presentation (or at least my interpretation) about our relationship with God. For example, God is our Master, we need to be humble, follow Him unquestioningly, He has a plan for Us, God’s ways are not Man’s ways, we need to submit our will to His will. And perhaps because of my own short comings those types of descriptors are not how I want to relate to God. I prefer to think of God as a mentor and partner with supreme understanding far beyond my own.
So this is were you input comes in… do you think it is reasonable when thinking about Fowler’s and Perry’s stages that the latter descriptor of our relationship with God could come be typical of the thinking associated with earlier stages (frame work) and perhaps my partnership framework is not wrong (as some would have me believe) but rather just a a different stage? OR do you sense a misunderstanding in the way I processed the information you are trying to convey.
We should talk. Email me and we can dive further into your questions