It is so tempting to give up on religion. When faced with the frustrating, if not horrific, ways in which religions are exploited in order to dehumanize others, maintain power and control, and repress our own inner chaos, it’s no surprise that many have tossed their faith on the rubbish […]
The main reason I call myself a humanist* is because I believe God is too. Humanists put a high value on the freedom, beauty and experience of humanity, and this was true long before religious violence and oppression (especially in Europe after the Reformation) drove such a huge wedge between […]
So, now that I’ve introduced maturity and explained why I believe development toward maturity would be better described by “facets” (that all co-exist at the same time) rather than “stages” (that one moves through in a consistent order), it’s time for me to explain how this co-existence works. At the […]
For many years I had always appreciated and occasionally taught James Fowler’s stages of faith development (and still do). But one day in my late forties, I saw some key elements suddenly fall apart. I thought back to how, in my early twenties when I first read about these stages, […]
Summary The Mosaic of Maturing Spirituality model is based on facets as opposed to stages. This is to shift the focus from an expectation that we go step by step through predictable stages toward an alternate understanding that we have a variety of “facets” that are all simultaneously present in […]
Summary 1. The important part of maturing is not how fast we go or how far we get but that we keep moving (or pause briefly enough that we can get started again). 2. Fear can make us resist the complexity of the world, or the pace of change can […]
Summary The Mosaic model I’m working on has two dimensions. The first – and subject of today’s post – is the continuum of maturity, defined as “increasing complexity held together by integrity.” I think we can find many aspects of maturing that reflect this pattern. By describing the dimension in […]
Here’s what I’m trying to do: I want to provide a description of the way we develop into maturity, particularly in a way that includes our spiritual development. First, I want to introduce the heart of my model (“The Mosaic of Maturing Spirituality”). I will begin each of these next […]
A couple of years ago I began a project that aims at describing a new model of spiritual development. Last year my article introducing this model was published in The EMCAPP Journal. Since then my best intentions to further this project along have stalled in the midst of a busy […]
Having confidence in the truth of one’s own religious beliefs has seemed like a crucial part of believing for most Christians. Those who disagree are in error and this error in beliefs (and resulting lifestyle) has ultimate consequences. In the perceptions of most Christians, this has not been at all […]