Everyone experiences faith differently in their lives. It can be unfair to proclaim one's faith as stronger or more serious than another person's since everyone's relationship with God is different. James Fowler wrote about how faith develops throughout our lives and I had the pleasure of reading a lot of his work during my undergraduate degree. I found a graphic that summarizes his stages of faith development to save you four years of intensive study:
When we are very young, our idea of faith is quite limited. We copy the things that our parents do, but according to Fowler, we do not really have an understanding of spiritual concepts just yet. Jumping to adolescence, one can see that in the struggle that teens have to form their own identities, they question religious values of their parents and communities. This is a normal part of growing up. We do this in many aspects of our lives, so it would be kind of strange if no teens questions the religious beliefs of their parents. No one wants to feel like they are forced into a certain identity. While here we see Fowler dividing the stages up by age group, it should be understood that these stages are not strictly tied to age. Many people remain in stage three for a long time, and some never reach stage six. If you reflect on your own life, where do you feel like you fit right now?
There is no shame or glory in any of the stages since each person is on their own journey. In my own opinion, the stages are also not like grades where we move up continuously, instead I do believe that we can go backwards depending on events that happen in our life. When something really tragic happens to us, such as the loss of a loved one, it can put us into stage three where we question everything all over again. It is important to remember that faith is a journey, but you do not have to walk it alone. You can always reach out to me to talk about how you are feeling and I will be there to listen and support you.
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