James W. Fowler

James William Fowler (born September 27, 1940 in San Fernando , California - † October 16, 2015 in Atlanta , Georgia ) was an American theologian .

Life

James William Fowler was the son of a Methodist pastor and a member of the United Methodist Church . He studied at Duke University ( BA ) and Harvard University ( Ph.D. ), where he then took up a teaching position.

He directed the Center for Research on Faith and Moral Development and the Emory's Center for Ethics in Public Policy and the Professions at Emory University in Atlanta , Georgia. In 2005 he retired.

theory

In the tradition of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, Fowler developed a belief development theory with the following six stages. For Fowler, faith is a structure that claims universal development normativity, independent of beliefs. The ages of the six levels are only a rough guide:

1. Intuitive-projective belief . After the child's basic trust has built up in the first few months of life, the child develops his imagination at the age of around 2–7, and the foundations for faith are laid.
2. Mythical-literal belief. The child can now also describe his or her faith. Above all, this happens visually. God is z. B. above, evil is below. Also, God is often used in anthropomorphic metaphors e.g. B. described as an old man with hands or feet.
3. Synthetic-conventional belief. This level begins to develop between the ages of 12 and 13, but many adults never get beyond this level. It slowly develops its own religious identity, the adolescent and also some adults are very dependent on the feedback of the "significant others" or their social environment. Faith is therefore called "conventional". The fragments are put together, but often do not yet fit together, which is why the stage is also called "synthetic".
4. Individually reflecting belief. The individual begins - according to Fowler - to step out of the conventions, to develop and assert their own positions against their environment.
5. Unifying belief. The multi-layered nature of various belief statements is recognized, and a recognition of one's own belief from the perspective of other belief traditions begins. In a certain way, the relativity of one's own belief is recognized, even if one's own positions and beliefs are not given up. Faith thereby gains in breadth. Only a few adults reach this level and mostly only in older adulthood.
6. Universal belief. Very few people like Mahatma Gandhi , Mother Teresa , Martin Luther King or Jesus Christ have reached this level, which is why it is less empirically proven than a postulate at Fowler. The person lives radically as if what Christians call the "kingdom of heaven" were already real. Man can deny himself and be completely absorbed in faith. Fowler mainly cites well-known people who died for their beliefs.

method

Fowler used guided qualitative interviews to develop his theory. The respondents first looked back at their life and tried to divide it into sections themselves. A second part is about life-shaping experiences, losses, crises, sufferings, joys or high points. In part three of his interviews, he asked about beliefs, values ​​and actions. Only in the last part did Fowler ask directly about religion. In total, Fowler cited 359 interviewees in his breakthrough study, 45 percent of them Protestants, 36.5 percent Catholics, 11.2 percent Jews, 3.6 percent Orthodox and 3.6 percent other people. Fowler defined his grades by assigning his interviewees to specific grades and thereby found that higher grades are more frequently used as people get older. So these were cross-sectional studies, not long-term observation of individual people.

criticism

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Fowler's theory of the development of faith is accused of methodological weaknesses, especially at higher levels. For his final stages in particular, Fowler can only show a few findings and interviews and instead uses people like Gandhi or Jesus to describe them. For level 6, Fowler cites just one interviewee, for level 5 there are 25. Another point of criticism is methodical. Fowler uses cross-sectional studies and not longitudinal studies, that is, he calculates the frequency of levels in certain age groups. Paradoxically, level 2 disappears in early adulthood but reappears in older people. In terms of stage theory, a reverse development would not be possible, but the empirical results seem to imply exactly that.

He also uses Judeo-Christian terminology to describe these levels, although his level descriptions do not want to be limited to these religions. The sample, which was composed primarily of believers of Judeo-Christian religions, is also seen as problematic. On the question of whether the level development should be promoted, Fowler has different opinions. Furthermore, criticism was made of Fowler's concept of faith. On the one hand, the term is defined sociologically and not theologically for him. On the other hand, the question was asked whether form and content can be viewed as separate and detached from one another, as Fowler claims. In addition, the criticism is directed against the apparently intellectualist ideal of his theory.

Works

• Faith development and pastoral care ; German: Faith Development: Perspectives for Pastoral Care and Church Educational Work ; Munich: Kaiser, 1989; ISBN 3-459-01797-X
• Stages of faith. The psychology of human development ; German: Levels of Faith: the psychology of human development and the search for meaning ; Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Mohn, 1991; ISBN 3-579-01750-0 (Edition 2000: ISBN 3-579-05176-8 )
• Religious congregations: varieties of presence in stages of faith ; in: Jeff Astley (Ed.): Christian perspectives on faith development ; Grand Rapids 1992; Pp. 370-383

literature

• James Fowler (Ed.): Stages of faith and religious development ; New York: Crossroad, 1991 (here also critical articles)
• Gabriele Klappenecker: Faith Development and Life History: An examination of the ethics of James Fowler; at the same time a contribution to the reception of H. Richard Niebuhr, Lawrence Kohlberg and Erik H. Erikson ; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1998; ISBN 3-17-015273-4
• Heinz Streib: Hermeneutics of metaphor, symbol and narrative in faith development theory ; Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1991; ISBN 3-631-43029-9

Web links

• Literature by and about James W. Fowler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Levels of belief according to Fowler (see section "Personality and Belief Development")

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sam Hodges: James Fowler, pastoral psychology scholar, dies at age 75. In: christiancentury.org , October 29, 2015, accessed on November 3, 2015 (English).