“There are natural, predictable cycles in human faith development. Importantly, these are not classified as increasingly ‘Bigger’ and ‘Better!’ Seasons of dormancy and decline are normal and even a sign of health. A healthy faith simple does not move in a straight line.”- Catherine McNiel and Jason Hague
In Chapter 2 (“Stages of Faith”) of Mid-Faith Crisis, Catherine McNiel and Jason Hague note that we’re wired to approach faith differently at different times. However, they muse, most churches don’t have a Sunday school classroom called “Reconsidering Everything I Was Taught About God.”
But, the authors counter, maybe churches should. Because, for some reason, we expect our faith to grow in a steady trajectory. Or, in the least, that things will continue in the way they started. Yet, normal growth patterns never look like that. For health requires occasional growth spurts as well as times of dormancy. Times that might even look like decline.
In addition, the authors note, a number of researchers found a similar theme. That somewhere deep into the faith maturing process, we hit a wall. Hence, after we’ve figured everything out, a season comes where everything falls apart.
Writing in Praying the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann used the terms disorientation and reorientation to describe these inevitable crises of faith. Furthermore, Brueggemann described these shifting seasons as movements. He also notes that those seasons occur many times in one’s lifetime. Not just once.
In conclusion, Catherine and Jason view the idea that faith consists of predictable changes as essential to their stories. However, the authors elect not to lean on any one scholar or theory. Instead, they synthesize those theories into their own four stages. The stages of: Inherited Faith, Confident Faith, Mid-Faith, and Conscious Faith.
In tomorrow’s blog I begin to take a closer look at those stages.
Today’s question: What do you think of the idea of cycles in human faith development? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The Confident Faith Stage”