Stage Two - Mythic-Literal Faith
In the previous stage, the child is immersed in fantasy. In contrast, the stage two child strives to separate fact from fantasy. Their thinking is concrete. They examine new information logically before accepting it as fact. Then, this new piece of information is woven into their existing frame of reference. The strength in this stage, Fowler said, is the new capacity for storytelling as a means of structuring and giving meaning. In terms of faith development, the person of stage two faith begins to make personal the beliefs, rituals and stories associated with his faith community, and takes a literal meaning from its stories and symbols. People of this stage of faith have an anthropomorphic vision of God, and perceive concepts such as justice and reciprocity to be principal characteristics of the world.
Stage Three - Synthetic-Conventional Faith
Stage three faith, if it is to develop, does so during adolescence. Many adults spend their entire lives as synthetic-conventional thinkers. Fowler said that faith must be a coherent factor at this stage, pulling together everything the individual knows and believes about himself and the world.
People of stage three faith honor a tacit system of values and meanings. That is, they feel that they simply "know" what they believe is true, and they do not question it. They relate to God (or to other transcendent ideals) through symbols and rituals and do not see the symbols as separable from their meaning. For example, a stage three Christian might react to an attack on the cross as if it were an attack on Christianity itself.
Stage three thinking focuses on interconnectedness. The conventional pattern of life among those to whom the individual relates (i.e., Christians, mothers, the middle-class) is considered the appropriate measure of "rightness".
The final installment in this series will provide an overview of stages four through six, and provide commentary on ways individuals might use this information to better understand their faith lives.
