The Theory of James Fowler

629 Words3 Pages
James Fowler’s theory outlined the six stages of development a person might go through as they mature through adulthood. His theory emerges at infancy and continues to follow through six stages. Fowler's stage of faith formation in terms of emerging adulthood generally begins around Stage 3. This stage, also known as the Synthetic-conventional faith stage, starts at about age 13 and typically lasts through the age of 18. Some people, however, stay at this stage for their entire life. At this stage adolescents start to see things from another individual’s perspective and reflect their concern on “what feels right” (Berger, 2011 pg. 505). Adolescents at this stage are now able to think abstractly. What were once simple rituals of conformity and unrelated stories can now be seen as a more cohesive narrative about values and morals. With abstract thinking comes the ability to see varying layers of meaning in rituals, a story and symbols of faith. Adolescents at this stage tend to claim their faith as their own instead of just going along with what their family does. As a young girl, my religion was formed through Catholicism and the beliefs that surrounded that biblical structure. Every week my family and I attended mass through its ritualistic merits. For me, I was brought into morals and beliefs as a result of my constant exposures. The issues of religious authority are important to most at this stage and are often, if not rarely challenged as in my case. As I grew older, matured and went off into college, I was able to cognitively realize that there are contradictions between some of the authoritative sources and I began to move forward and reflect realistically on them. In turn, I began to move to the fourth stage of James Fowler's theory, the Individuative-reflective faith stage. According to Fowler, it is ideal that a person reaches this stage in their early to

More about The Theory of James Fowler

Open Document