I’m doing some work on “stages of faith” or developmental spirituality.
What is your favorite image or paradigm or framework for describing growth or maturation or stages within the spiritual life?
Or, if you don’t like such things, tell me why?
@mwerickson I'm a little resistant to them, because like most categorization tools, we often rely on them to be too prescriptive.
That said, I think The Critical Journey (Hagberg & Guelich) is the most helpful, since it includes a very diverse set of stages and doesn't claim to be truly sequential. I've at least found it helpful for starting a discussion with someone.
@mwerickson I've heard "to/with/for" used to discuss how a spiritual director teaches, journeys alongside, and then resources as people mature. I'm also hoping to hear what others say.
@johnchandler Thanks so much, John. I wrestle with these categorizations as well. I've looked a lot at the work of Fowler as described in his Stages of Faith but I feel like it's a bit too linear. I like the idea of seasons recurring cyclically in our spiritual life similarly to how they do in the natural world, while also tracking the overall chronological development of our spiritual lives from beginning to end of life.
I just love The Critical Journey. It has helped me tremendously, particularly the writing around the Wall.
@KyleEssary That's great, Kyle. Is there a specific resource you could point me toward that speaks of this? My wife is a spiritual director, so I suppose I could always ask her, too. :)