Childhood and Adolescence Development and Teaching PDF

Part 2 Development and teaching 5 Childhood and adolescence Childhood Development an...

Part 2 Development and teaching 5 Childhood and adolescence Childhood Development andand adolescence teaching QUESTIONS FOR MINISTRY Who are the children and young people in your life? What sense do you have of their spiritual qualities? What are their spiritual strengths and how can we build on these? How can we teach the faith to young people in a way that doesn’t produce a naive or literalist faith, which will only be jettisoned as they grow up? What are the ‘accident black spots’ of children’s and teenagers’ religious development, how can we protect against the development of religious misinterpretation? Ministry with children and young people presents special opportunities, responsi- bilities and challenges. For many of us these special needs make working with the young a daunting prospect. There is much about Christianity and the church that seems so adult. It can seem impossible to know how to pitch this in a way that is engaging or meaningful for younger people. A working knowledge of their psycho- logical and religious capacities is therefore essential. Scripture is clear that childhood deserves our full attention. Jesus’ treatment of and comments about children remain a challenge to our typical assumptions about religious authority and the adult-centredness of religion. The idea that children are not only to be ‘set in the midst’, but to present a significant spiritual example to us is perhaps the clearest challenge for ministry today. What kind of ministry, based on what kind of understanding of the child’s strengths and limitations, can do justice to Jesus’ perceptions and warnings in Matthew 18? This chapter will first look at the psychology of the child. The church is called to work with children and their families in many contexts (e.g. infant baptism and thanksgiving, admission to Communion, all-age worship, confirmation, Sunday schools, church schools, and in all manner of community projects). Effective ministry benefits from being aware of the range of psychological problems that can disrupt childhood. The most extreme problems reflect the complicated challenges all 80 Development and teaching children encounter in growing up and remind us of their vulnerabilities and their strengths. Understanding the normal course of development provides a number of helpful indicators for how children may respond to faith. Many studies of the nature of childhood religion have important implications for more sensitive approaches to religious nurture. Teenagers also require special understanding (set out in the second part of this chapter). Adolescence can be a difficult period of transition, with its own set of potential psychological problems. Research studies offer a way of empirically testing some of the popular myths about adolescence. Appreciating some of the contours of adolescent psychology, on the basis of the intellectual, emotional and social develop- ments of this stage of life, suggests many ways in which spirituality and faith may be negotiated. Readers will find it helpful to refer to Chapter 6 on religious development and Chapter 7 on education as these provide additional angles to many of the ideas dis- cussed below. Chapters dealing with the psychological understanding of religious diversity, illness and bereavement, depression, counselling, group processes, wor- ship and ritual are also relevant for work with children and young people. Children’s psychology Common problems All parents worry about their child’s psychological well-being at some stage, if not most of the time. In childhood we face some of the most revolutionary changes of our lives, in our thinking, in our physical capacities, in our ability to communicate, in our social groupings and so on. Some measure of disturbance, some of the time, is a normal reaction to this. Individual differences and the pace of change during childhood can make it hard to assess whether a child has a serious problem or not. Most psychological problems in childhood consist of perfectly normal childlike qualities manifested in an abnormal quantity – for example, an excess of timidity or insufficient self- restraint. Guidelines about developmental norms can help to suggest what it is reasonable to expect children at different ages to be like. For example, temper tantrums are normal in toddlers, but a more worrying sign in an 8-year-old when self-control and other means of expressing strong emotions should have developed. Clarifying what is really wrong Children experience problems in three main areas – in behaviour (e.g. anti-social or violent behaviour), in emotion (e.g. anxiety or depression) and learning (e.g. dyslexia). Often problems multiply, and what seemed at first to be the obvious problem turns out in fact to have been the by-product of a deeper, previously unidentified issue. Martin Herbert (1988) suggests that academic underachievement and social ‘friendlessness’ are best understood as consequences  Childhood and adolescence 81 of other underlying psychological difficulties, which are likely to create new prob- lems too. For example, poor school performance may indicate specific neurologi- cal damage affecting reading and writing (dyslexia), but not IQ. Being misperceived as ‘stupid’ is likely to trigger negative emotional and behavioural responses – damaged self-esteem and disobedience perhaps. Having friends is an important factor for learning (from peers), for emotional well-being (self-esteem, self-awareness) and for behaviour (accommodating to others needs, making one’s own needs heard in appropriate ways). However, friendlessness often arises because the child has inadequate psychological skills in the first place – lacking sensitivity to others, confidence, the ability to resolve personal disputes or negoti- ate joint actions. Identifying the component parts of these kinds of general prob- lem can help to break into the negative cycle, working remedially on specific issues or skills. The role of the family Ministers are usually in close contact with the child’s most effective problem-solvers: the parents. However, once problems arise parents can feel de-skilled and inade- quate, and so both for their sake and their child’s they need encouraging support in meeting their child’s special needs. Tackling the sense of confusion and powerless- ness over their child’s situation can be helped by adopting clarification strategies such as keeping a journal recording the ABCs of the problem: the Antecedents, to learn what triggers problem episodes; the Behaviour itself; and the Consequences that this led to. Some child problems are better understood as family problems – help is needed to stabilise the whole family system of which the child’s problems are just one symp- tom. For example, a child may provoke a recurring psychosomatic illness in the knowledge that this temporarily stops her parents’ arguments. Parenting difficulties (the inability to cope, a lack of emotional engagement, or even abuse) may only come to light in the form of child problems too. Child abuse can be physical, sexual or emotional. Suspicions should always be referred to professionals, never investigated by ministers. Whether part of the solution, or part of the problem (often both), parents should not be overlooked when our attention is drawn to the plight of the child. Divorce One of the most significant ways that parents can influence the development of their child is if their relationship breaks down. Losing a parent through divorce, espe- cially when contact is lost, can have a more negative impact on a child’s well-being than the death of a parent. The longer-term consequences are hard to determine, since marital disharmony, poverty and/or single parenting themselves all contribute to delinquency and other problems. Table 5.1 summarises the immediate effects on children at different ages. 82 Development and teaching Table 5.1 Common difficulties as children deal with recently divorced parents Pre-school Sad, frightened, clinging, demanding, vivid fantasies about abandonment by or death of parent(s). Aggression towards other children. 5-8 years Hurt as above, more anger, often towards remaining parent (mum typically) who is blamed for situation. Absent parent is idealised. 8-12 years Displays less hurt, hard to encourage to talk, seeks distractions. Teenage Depression, opts out of family life, creates alternative ‘family’ of friends. Spotting the signs Children express and deal with psychological distress in less obvious ways than adults. For example, a depressed child may not explicitly say that they feel desperate prolonged sadness. To identify and to respond to children’s problems, it helps to listen to ‘languages’ in which they may be more fluent: their behaviour, their fan- tasy, their play and storytelling. Children only gradually acquire the intellectual sophistication to reflect on their own mental states, but easily project their feelings onto fictional characters with whom they can identify. They might even appropriate characters from Biblical stories to do this. Ego defence mechanisms help us to understand a variety of problems. In child- hood, the emerging sense of self tends to be naturally fragile. Parental anxiety can lead to a temptation to overprotect the child, especially when wider support (e.g. from parents, teachers, or peer group) for self-esteem and self-worth seems lacking.  Childhood and adolescence 83 Table 5.2 Children’s problems: when self-protection (ego defence) backfires Ego defence mechanism Example of child’s problem Emotional insulation Cutting off links to anything Becoming mute after witnessing something involving feelings traumatic, refusing to be cuddled Displacement Removing the source of anxiety to Aggressive towards peers as reaction to domestic another context conflict Projection Locating distressing feelings about Bullying as a way of dealing with being bullied by oneself in others others, including parents/siblings Fantasy Unrealistic ideas and self beliefs Conjecture that ‘I am adopted’ to explain parent’s insufficient love; or hopeless wishful thinking that divorced parents will get back together Reaction formation Going to the opposite extreme Adopting a ‘don’t care’ stance, such as anti-social conduct or indifference to others’ feelings when in fact the ‘ego’ craves care and empathy Escapism Denial of reality in form of non- Dyslexic says ‘I can read, I just don’t want to’ co-operation or withdrawal Thinking about the child’s problem as the consequences of ego defence can help us to trace some problems back to less apparent root insecurities and needs. Table 5.2 gives some examples. Just a phase? It is reassuring to know that many childhood problems resolve themselves as the child grows older – though they may be disabling and distressing at the time. Prob- lems with toiletting, speech, fears (e.g. of strange places, the dark, leaving mum) usually improve with each year of life. Lying and insufficient appetite peak in early childhood, but are less common thereafter. Sleep problems, bad dreams, timidity, irritability, attention seeking, overdependence, and jealousy peak as children start school, and again when they transfer to secondary school (Herbert 1988). Serious conduct disorders, seen in excessive aggression, uncontrolled temper and overac- tivity are grown out of much more slowly, especially in boys. While most children with problems will develop into normal functioning adults, conduct problems need extra attention to break the habits that can lead to an anti-social adolescence and a criminal adult life. 84 Development and teaching SUMMARY OF KEY THEMES Childhood difficulties as exaggerated versions of ‘normal’ traits. The importance of the family context. Tracing problems back to their root causes. How children can be helped to grow out of their problems. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER What is your experience, if any, of ministering to families whose children have emotional, behavioural, or educational problems? In what ways might the parents be part of the cause of the problems? In what ways can the parents help solve the problems? Which problems can you help to deal with as a minister and which are outside your capabilities? The development of religious understanding in children Jean Piaget’s model of general intellectual development St. Paul noted there was an important disjunction between child and adult thinking: ‘When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me’ (1 Cor. 13. 11). The gap between children’s and adults’ thinking and reasoning abilities is not simply how much each can do and how much each knows. There are important qualitative differ- ences affecting the kind of thinking children are able to do. Jean Piaget’s ground- breaking studies of children’s thinking on a variety of matters maps the psychological landmarks that distinguish the intellectual style of the infant, the pre-schooler, and the school-age child until the emergence of a recognisably adult style in adolescence. EXERCISE What happens at a service of worship at your church that might speak to a child’s way of thinking at 18 months, at 4 years, and at 8 years? If the children withdraw for part (or all) of some services, to what extent do the ‘children’s groups’ they go to offer fair substitutes of how the main worship service conveyed religious thought in physical movement, imaginative representation, and in the exploitation of immediate context? What is the relative importance for you to express your faith in physical, imagi- native, concrete and abstract ways? Piaget’s analysis suggests children need opportunities to think in ways that engage them on their own terms – talking down to them in simplified versions of adult think- ing (e.g. about ideas, principles, analogies) is an inadequate response. Children think effectively initially through their bodies (sensorimotor 0–2), then also through their  Childhood and adolescence 85 Box 5.1 Piaget’s phases of intellectual development ‘Sensorimotor’ thinking (age 0–2) Thinking is in terms of the child’s own bodily experience. Exploring through the 5 senses how things feel, look, sound, taste, smell; differentiating between light and dark, banging bricks together, chewing rattles. Expanding percep- tion of the world through physical development: grasping, holding, rolling, sitting up, tasting, crawling, pointing, standing, listening. ‘Pre-operational’ thinking (age 2–7) Thought is imaginative and fluid rather than logical or reasoned: pretending, magic and make-believe. As language develops, the ability to refer to things and mentally represent them revolutionises children’s thinking capacities; thought becomes more than just the processing of physical encounters. But the ‘operation’ of thinking skills is chaotic. Children at this stage think in terms of how things feel and appear to them; their ‘thinking’ seems dominated by their feelings and impulsive guesswork. ‘Concrete operational’ thinking (age 7–11) Thinking at this stage depends heavily on the actual context; there is an emphasis and reliance on strict rules and on literal interpretations. Develop- ment of some control over the operation of thought processing begins. Child- ren now begin to appreciate logical explanations and connections between things, they are sensitive about whether things ‘make sense’. Children at this stage can make rational judgements and be objective only in terms of what appear to them as the literal, ‘concrete’ features under consideration. ‘Formal operational’ thinking (age 12+) Thinking includes playing with and making connections between ideas, and being able to reflect on principles behind rules. In this stage the legitimately childish qualities of thinking are overcome. Abstract ideas can be entertained. Issues and hypotheses, rather than actual situations, can enter mental currency. (Piaget 1926, 1953) feelings and imagination (pre-operational 2–7) and later through basic, literal reason- ing with ‘hands on’ ways to sort out their understanding (concrete 7–11). Engaging children’s minds means offering different things at different ages. Ronald Goldman’s three stages of children’s religious thinking In many ways religious thought is abstract and conceptual and so would seem to become possible only in Piaget’s final stage of thinking – the ‘formal operational’ – which normally only develops during the teenage years. However, research shows 86 Development and teaching Table 5.3 Goldman’s three stages of religious thinking in children Stage 1 Intuitive religious thinking Scripture Magical explanations, e.g. of miracles; images rather than narrative sequences are recalled. God image Magical potentate. Prayer Wishful, magical activity. Morality Good happens if you are good; fear authority. Religious identity Automatic, unquestioned, like my name. Stage 2 Literal and concrete religious thinking Scripture Engrossed by narrative but can’t extract meaning; metaphors are superfluous. God image Anthropomorphic: man with beard, sandals, sits on cloud. Prayer Instrumental; bargaining to get things I’d like. Morality Rules to obey; appease authority and earn favour. Religious identity Literal logic: I’m Christian because my family is, so our cat is too! Stage 3 Abstract and conceptual religious thinking Scripture Uses symbolic, metaphorical levels of meaning to make sense. Can identify conceptual representations (e.g. of salvation, of sacrifice). God image Abstract, multifaceted, e.g. love, creative force, Trinity, judge. Prayer Exploration of oneself before God; communicative. Morality Refer to ‘rights’, ‘principles’, ‘duty’, breaking rules to achieve greater good. Religious identity Outcome of personal choice. that during the earlier stages of their development, children are able to engage in a variety of different sorts of religious thinking. For example, the British psychologist Ronald Goldman (1964) investigated how children’s approaches to thinking affected their understanding of religious material. Two hundred children were asked about their interpretations of three Bible stories (the burning bush, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the story of Jesus’ time in the Wilderness). The youngest (pre-operational) children gave magical explanations, those somewhat older (concrete operational) remained close to ‘the facts’ even when these were peripheral to the heart of the story, and only the oldest (aged 12 or older; formal operational) seemed able to think about the stories’ symbolic meanings. Goldman concluded that children’s religious thinking is shaped by the same developmental processes that Piaget had identified more gener- ally; manifesting themselves in three stages of religious thinking.  Childhood and adolescence 87 These three stages can be illustrated in interpretations of the Red Sea story. At the first stage, children would think that God supernaturally separated the waves, at the next stage they would think that he did it by some physical means, and at the final stage might seek other explanations such as that God put it into the minds of the Israelites to make use of naturally occurring conditions. Children’s religious thinking tends to lag behind the stage of thinking they employ in other areas (e.g. even when they start to reason in a literal way about things in the real world, they may still opt for an intuitive approach for religion). Moving from literal to abstract can be the slowest shift of all, up to six years from first signs of transition (Peatling 1973). Many never make the shift, but simply reject their underdeveloped religious understandings as their other cognitive capacities develop. Goldman termed this phenomenon ‘11-year-old atheism’. His findings led him to question the wisdom of introducing children to religious ideas before they have the skills to deal with abstraction, symbols, and so on. He worried about the consequences of allowing children’s ‘distorted’ explanations to develop, since it seemed so hard for children to move beyond a literal style in many cases, confused as they were about how they could give up cherished understandings without seeming to turn their back on faith. Other children never moved on because their literal understanding of religion seemed primitive, crude, or irrational in comparison with their ability to think rationally in other areas (from about age 11), so they discarded religion as childish. This is a difficult transitional stage for children to negotiate, especially if ‘under- standing’ has been too closely identified with having ‘faith’. Support for change can make a difference: Abraham (1981) found that encouraging children aged 12 to face up to the ‘cognitive conflict’ produced by a literalist understanding of religious teachings helped them to move forward, but made no difference to younger children. Without this prompting to engage their new mental skills, 12- year-olds’ literalism became even more entrenched. Alternative perspectives on Goldman’s research As with all generalised ‘stage’ models, Goldman’s scheme should be handled with care. His methods have been criticised for not giving children the best chance to show their understanding. By improving the context of investigation, the language of the stories and the questions, other studies have shown children are not as limited as Goldman first thought (e.g. Murphy 1978). Being sensitive to the success or fail- ure of our communication with children is vital to drawing any conclusions from what they say. In addition, children may often have more ‘tacit’ knowledge and implicit under- standing than is revealed by what they can explicitly articulate. For example, young children show considerable implicit understanding of how people’s thoughts and feel- ings can influence their actions before they can explain this in words. Implicit religious understanding might mean children appreciate the frisson of a metaphor (the light of the world), or the counterpoint offered by analogy (he is the shepherd, we are the sheep) without the ability to comment explicitly on this. Petrovich (1988) found 88 Development and teaching young children readily offered abstract images for God in spontaneous discussion, but when asked directly ‘what is God like’ they reverted to stage-limited magical or anthropomorphic images. How we create opportunities for children to share their understanding, as well as our response to this, can make the difference between glimpsing personal insights and simply seeing their cognitive machinery at work. A further caution about Goldman’s findings is that the stage-like development of logical, conceptual reasoning skills may not be so central to religious processing. Other, non-rational kinds of knowing (e.g. Donaldson (1992) writes about the devel- opment of a ‘value-sensing’ mode; Watts and Williams (1988) refer to empathic insight) may be more relevant and not put children at an automatic disadvantage – in fact their childish ways of thinking may assist these more intuitive modes of under- standing. It is sensible to make allowances for the ways children’s thinking limits their religious understanding, but emotional and attitudinal factors may offer the real keys to developing children’s religious sensitivities. Finally, criticism has been levelled at Goldman for the effect of his liberal theo- logical stance upon his conclusions about religious development. Goldman viewed a non-literal understanding of events such as the crossing of the Red Sea to be superior to and to preclude a literal understanding, rather than considering the possibility of holding both a literal and a more complex symbolic interpretation alongside each other. SUMMARY OF KEY THEMES Piaget’s four stages of intellectual development: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Goldman’s three stages of religious thinking: intuitive, literal and concrete, abstract and conceptual. The problem of ‘11-year-old atheism’. How younger children’s tacit and emotional knowing may outstrip their intel- lectual and explicit knowing. Other perspectives on Goldman’s research. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER How might the child’s stage of religious thinking affect his understanding of receiving Communion? What is ‘Christian’ parenting? What are its goals? Do mothering and fathering develop distinctive spiritual qualities? How is pastoring not like parenting? Children’s spirituality Rather than just being aware of psychological weaknesses that can compromise an intellectual basis for belief, ministry can look for strengths that support a spiritual basis for faith in children of different ages.  Childhood and adolescence 89 Spiritual life and infant psychology It is now recognised by psychologists that infants are far more sophisticated and sen- sitive to their experiences and environment than was once thought (see e.g. Bower 1989). Psychodynamic theories (especially the object relations school) draw atten- tion to the foundational basis for a sense of ‘self’ that is laid down in infancy. There can be parallels between patterns of self-other relations set down during infancy and subsequent adult experiences of relationship with God (St. Clair 1994; Kirkpatrick and Shaver 1990). Many, even Freud, have observed the resonance between mysti- cal perception and the infant’s embodied, undifferentiated, unitary consciousness prior to the development of a separate ego-consciousness. In addition to this, the psychosocial context of infancy focuses intently on a range of issues that will be vital ingredients of faith at later stages of development, such as intimacy, dependence, personhood, and trust. These various characteristics of infancy all point to the value of relating well to children from the start, not only out of concern for their general well-being, but also because of what these earliest experiences may mean for their spiritual well-being. Carol Newberger’s (1980) ‘levels of parental awareness’, as shown in Table 5.4, offer a useful guide for helping adults (parents, ministers, or teachers) to recognise and improve on their attitudes in relating to children from birth onwards. Different qualities of relationship, depending on the adult’s awareness of the child, are likely to have different consequences for the child’s spiritual welfare, and the adult’s in return. Increasing awareness depends chiefly on recognising the infant’s complex psychological, and potentially spiritual, capacities. Spiritual life and pre-schoolers’ psychology The psychological life of a child aged 2–6 is far from shallow. Dealing with power and powerlessness, autonomy and self-doubt, taking initiative, and experiences of guilt and failure give the child plenty to work out in everyday experiences. Limited verbal and conceptual skills (still at a pre-operational and intuitive level) give added intensity to emotional experience. There are many strengths to the child’s non- rational approach, and developing these may help to protect childhood religion from the hard-to-recover-from diversions that early rational (literal) approaches are likely to cause (see the discussion of 11-year-old atheism above). Pre-schoolers’ perception is holistic rather than analytic. They enjoy ‘knowing’ but are unconcerned about ‘how I know’. Being unsystematic means there is little sense of religion being compartmentalised as distinct from everyday life; God is as natural as breakfast. Children of this age are curious and open to knowledge and to relationships, including God. They are also familiar with an experience of being overwhelmed by the intensity of emotions, and through this can be aware of a sense of power that is mysteriously personal and transcendent. In a limited way they can consciously note these feelings, and need a simple way to contain or mark this: names (‘God’?), images, and gestures (e.g. kneeling, silence, dancing, singing) can provide helpful ways to channel and develop these feelings. James Fowler’s (1981) 90 Development and teaching empirical study of faith structures at this stage give a special place to the power of images. Children easily project their feelings onto images, creating an external symbol of meaning from the ambiguous stuff of emotion. Religious images have a great power for evoking and expressing human emotions, and so often appeal to children. The feelings and meanings children invest in these images may be unconventional at this stage. To avoid the pitfalls of entrenched liter- alism later on, exploring a few contrasting images prevents too narrow an identifica- tion of feelings and meaning. For example, Sofia Cavalletti (1983) offers both ‘Good Shepherd’ and ‘Light of the World’ as images through which children explore their own feelings about Jesus. There will be better emotional engagement with certain aspects of an image if it can speak to the child’s psychosocial concerns. For example, Cavalletti’s research found that pre-schoolers engaged with the ‘Good Shepherd’ as a maternal, nurtur- ing, ‘name knowing’ figure. They did not respond in the same way to the shep- herd’s care for the lost sheep, which speaks more to a moral issue about forgiveness – a concern of middle childhood. Nor did the image of the Good Shepherd as guide and self-sacrificial figure resonate as deeply, since these features speak more to adolescent issues of searching for identity and role-models, and of painful losses and gains. The pre-school child’s limited vocabulary, understanding, attention and know- ledge make it harder to recognise spiritual insights at first glance. Research evidence offers some guidance about how to see through this unpromising surface psychology to verbal and non-verbal responses (Cavalletti 1983; Nye 1998; Taylor 1989; Coles 1992). Verbal responses at this age will be spontaneous, fleeting, and often very quietly spoken comments – the child thinking aloud rather than attempting to converse. Their language often has a physical, emotional or intuitive accent: for example, saying ‘my body is so happy’ (commenting on their reaction to becoming absorbed in reli- gious play), ‘God is walking here’ (commenting on a breathtaking view), ‘I can feel God better in the dark’ (after a long silence sitting in a garden at dusk). Non-verbal clues include a period of calm absorption culminating in joy, clearly distinguishable from the frenetic happiness of ordinary childhood pleasure (Cavalletti 1983). Clues can also be uncovered through careful observation of children’s play (see Berryman 1991) in which their most serious ‘work’ can be seen to take place (Axline 1947). Observing play for this purpose invites questions about the deeper meanings of simple activities, the attitude of Level 4 parental awareness described above. An application: prayer The various spiritual capacities arising in pre-schoolers’ psychology pose many challenges for ministry. In what ways might prayer be an appropriate activity for this age group? Psychological theory and empirical observations provide some guide- lines here (Cavalletti et al. 1994). Praise and thanksgiving are religious responses to which the child feels naturally drawn; prayer should capitalise on what is natural and easier. The child may have wide, undifferentiated prayer concerns (e.g. ‘Thank you God for Jesus, my Barbie and our cupboards’) reflecting their holistic perception of  Childhood and adolescence 91 Table 5.4 Newberger’s levels of parental awareness Level 1 The adult’s own needs eclipse any thought for the child’s and the way the world might be for him or her. When asked about the Me first child’s needs, parents actually describe their own. Egocentric and oblivious of the child’s spiritual potential, possessive about their own. Level 2 Fixed rules dictate what makes a good parent and a good child. Follow the rules Standards determine interactions with the child, their needs have been decided centrally. This conveys little confidence in the spiritual: rules are bigger than people, worshipping the letter of the law not the spirit of the law. Level 3 The child is recognised as having her own unique needs and gifts, We are individuals as does the adult. An aware way of relating to the child draws less on preconceived rules and more on a respect for the child’s own ‘special’ needs and personality. Lends itself to a spirituality of individual respect and tolerance. Level 4 The child’s individuality is not only admitted but treated as Living and meaningful. The parent is motivated by a desire to understand growing together rather than control the child. The search for meaning conveys the sense of deeper truths to be discovered in all manner of relationships. The child can sense inclusion in this web of value and meaning, establishing the spirituality of her own life as piece of a much larger puzzle. 92 Development and teaching Box 5.2 Qualities of children’s spiritual experiences Elicit a strong sense of relation – a sense of wider connections, a feeling that there is more than ‘just me’ Expressed in various ‘languages’: themes including religious, science fic- tion, natural world, birth and death Eager for ‘terminology’ that can deal with the ambiguity and power of these experiences – ‘mystery’, ‘invisible force’, ‘out of body’, ‘holy’ Show desire to craft these into a spiritual world view – to use their organ- ising and reasoning skills Children look out for explanations for these experiences – Conscience? God? A trick of the mind? – but tend to adopt the first on offer (Hay and Nye 1998) religion as continuous with everyday life. The integrity of a personal prayer is more valuable than its orthodoxy – the latter is alien to the child’s mind. Petitionary and penitential responses are uncommon responses to religious feel- ing at this age. Prayer in these forms will be harder and the child will be more dependent on copying others’ formulae. Misconceptions of the purpose of prayer are more likely here (magic charm, wishful thinking) promoting neurotic, supersti- tious and ultimately unconvincing prayer experiences. Prayer is an unusual use of language and pre-schoolers are novice language users: it is vital to keep things very simple. One or two word prayers can work well, drawing on other ways of communi- cating (gesture, silence) to extend the prayer time. (For a discussion of the role of prayer in adults’ spirituality, see Chapter 1.) Spiritual life and schoolchildren’s ‘concrete’ psychology As children reach the ages of four and five they discover a new ability and desire to organise and sort information. They become capable of reasoning about their own and others’ beliefs and behaviours; they are now less dependent on intuition, and more conscious that inner life has its own kind of reality and rules. These develop- ments coincide with the beginning of formal education and the widening social horizon of school life. This also marks the stage at which children’s spirituality can be more directly observed. Despite their limited religious understanding, they report having spiri- tual experiences and feelings (whether or not they practise any faith). In a large scale survey Tamminen (1991) found 80 per cent of 7-year-olds and 60 per cent of 11- year-olds reported special experiences of God’s closeness. This compares with just 30 per cent in adults. Qualitative research confirms this high incidence of religious experience among schoolchildren, and provides important information about the features of these experiences and the child’s responses to them (Coles 1992; Hay and Nye 1998; see Box 5.2).  Childhood and adolescence 93 Possibilities for religious development created by a ‘concrete’ mindset School children can more systematically identify and ask questions, but are still curious enough not to censor ‘awkward’ questions. This open and searching approach is an ideal quality to encourage for faith. However, being able to organise their thinking more clearly can compromise their earlier non-compartmentalised attitude to religion. They may want to put it in a box and see it restricted to ‘church’ or ‘Sunday’. This can be offset when a place for religion is made apparent in other contexts, for example, at home. The child’s perception of his mother’s religiosity is the single biggest influence on his own religiosity (Hunsberger and Brown 1984). Children can use their concrete images and understanding in the service of their own kind of theological reasoning. They pile up literal images and weave them into a story-like form to produce coherence. Literal thoughts are qualified, extended, rea- soned about: they feel driven to make meaning (Hull 1990). Application: telling Bible stories Goldman’s (1964) research alerts us to problems school children often have with explaining Bible stories. However, stories are ideally suited to their minds in other ways. Children’s capacity and need to organise without recourse to argument or abstract generalisations is attracted to the story form’s ability to place feelings and images carefully into patterns and sequences to create meaning (Fowler 1981). Children are much better than adults at projecting themselves wholeheartedly into stories. They relish the chance to visit a ‘transitional space’, loosening their grip on ‘real’ time, and on their ego, to allow inner reality and outer reality to meet and dialogue in a safe way. Bible stories, especially parables, have the ingredients to work in exactly this way. They are neither just fairy tales nor are they just moral codes or propositional statements of religious fact. They are a rich distillation of both life and ideas, of lived experience and intellectual meaning. This natural capacity of the story to communicate to the child means it is often unnecessary and unhelpful to attempt to explain stories to them by using them as a platform for a teaching point (something the teacher tells them). This might even disconnect them from the primary experience of being carried into the meaning of story as it is told. In hearing and telling stories, schoolchildren use their distinctive psychological capacities to discover layers of meaning for themselves (Bettelheim 1978; Wolff Pritchard 1992). SUMMARY OF KEY THEMES The power of religious images and stories in working with children. Levels of parental awareness. The pitfalls of encouraging literalism in childhood spirituality. Reading between the lines for fleeting verbal and non-verbal spiritual responses. The prevalence and characteristics of children’s religious experiences. 94 Development and teaching QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Could ‘levels of parental awareness’ (and their spiritual implications) also help to describe levels of ‘pastoral awareness’ in the way ministers variously respond to an individual’s spirituality at any age? What in your childhood felt ‘sacred’ to you? Who did you share this with? Girls report more religious experience than boys. Why might this be, and how might ministry support boys especially in this area? What is there about a boy’s psychology that could offer a few guidelines for your practice? What kinds of liturgy might appeal to children’s psychology? Are you aware of approaches to children’s ministry that might inadvertently damage or undermine their spirituality? Adolescents, teenagers, and young adults One of the most important things to recognise about teenagers, as about all general- ised groupings of people of a certain age, is that they are not all the same. One of the keys to a successful ministry with children and adolescents is avoiding the trap of treating them all the same way, as ‘kids’ or ‘adolescents’. Youth ministry is often seen as a need to respond to a crisis in our churches. Indeed, many do give up on faith and church in their youth (although the greater proportion of leavers are, in fact, adults). Young people have to deal with problems associated with sex, drugs, vandalism, and theft: these occur just as much among Christian young people as among their secular peers (Roehlkepartain 1998; Schuller (ed.) 1993). However, the adult reaction to this – to protect or distract young people from this reality – can be driven too much by adult psychological anxieties and pay too little attention to the young person’s own psychological needs and strengths. Psychological issues in adolescence: identity, sex, independence Opportunities to meet a wider range of people (new school, clubs, choosing one’s own friends) and increasing powers of reflective thinking mean that young people are primed to give more attention to their own identity. A new kind of self-discovery becomes possible and interesting. But this sense of individuality has to contend with increasing awareness of others, which can urge conformity to the peer group in which the individual self can find camouflage. The widely held opinion that adolescents experience an ‘identity crisis’ is not supported by the research evidence, which shows that most young people have fairly stable and positive self-images. Anxiety and distress can occur if too large a gap develops between self-concept (how I see myself) and idealised self (how I would like to be), with girls most at risk, perhaps because they are more likely to include media images of women in their wider range of social reference. The onset of puberty is an important feature of the transitional quality of adoles- cence. Losing child status, but not yet having full adult status arouses ambivalent  Childhood and adolescence 95 Box 5.3 The youth of today are not all the same Adolescents, teenagers, and young adults are most definitely not a homoge- nous group. The differences in psychology and experience of 12-year-olds and 20-year-olds are enormous, not to mention the many differences within each age group. J. Nelson suggests at least three (empirically based) stages within this ‘youth’ period, each with its own particular emphases. Joining and drifting Age 12–15 Being uniquely oneself and/or belonging to a tradition. The joining and drifting issues of early adolescence suggest the key image for ministry might be ‘Jesus as a Way of Life’, someone to model, someone with whom to develop allegiance. Drifting and searching Age 15–18 Exploring what is true for oneself and/or accepting what is received from someone else. The drifting and searching of the mid-teens suggests the key image for minis- try here might be ‘Jesus the Friend’, when the interpersonal is in ascendancy in their lives and closest relationships are highly valued as the place where ‘truth’ may be found. Searching and owning Age 18–21 Possessing one’s own meaning system and/or being confused about purpose and occupation in one’s life. The searching and owning of young adulthood suggest the image of ‘Jesus: The Goal and Meaning of Life’. This image can provide identity and coher- ence to life in a way that is more settled and reflective. (Nelson 1997) feelings. It can be liberating to no longer look or feel like a child, but frustrating that emerging adult characteristics (particularly sexuality) are not enough to complete the transition to adulthood. If puberty occurs earlier or much later than the rest of the peer group these problems can be compounded by social anxieties. In adolescence a new kind of intellectual independence can develop. Not only are teenagers physically and socially less dependent on their primary carers, but they discover new mental skills that allow them to identify their own values, direction, feelings, and plans more explicitly than before. They can organise these into a ‘sys- tem’ in which logic and argument are prized, seemingly infallible, tools. Learning about these skills and tools requires freedom to practise and the support of a safety net if things go wrong. Families and churches can help (or hinder) this development of conceptual independence, allowing for the likelihood that aspects of faith may be re-evaluated by the young person too. Popular perceptions of adolescence characterise it as problem-filled and angst- 96 Development and teaching ridden. Serious psychological problems are slightly more common in this period than in childhood, but for the majority the teenage years are not an emotional war zone. Some psychological problems that are particularly associated with adolescence include the onset of schizophrenia, anorexia, and bulimia. General moodiness, bouts of misery, worry and self-criticism, fears about school, achievements and social acceptance are fairly common though in surprisingly few cases result in clinical depression or serious emotional disturbance. Implications for ministry Adolescence is not inevitably or excessively problematic, but the expectation that it is tends to pathologise youth and may sometimes act as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Churches need to be especially careful about the effects their negative assumptions about this period can have on young people’s vulnerable self-images. Too easily, per- haps through an overemphasis on the theology of sin and salvation, young Christians can be made to feel unduly ‘bad’ in contrast with the church and faith, which are char- acterised as the opposing ‘good’, their only hope of refuge from themselves. Approaches that focus more on the emerging psychological strengths that young people bring to this challenging time in their lives can be more productive. Negative assumptions about young people (e.g. exaggerated fears about anti-social, anti- authoritarian tendencies) can result in practices that isolate them, as if they were dis- eased, perhaps to their own club or their own service. Adults need to be honest about their own sources of motivation for this. They may be resisting adolescent characteris- tics in themselves or the church (e.g. questioning authority, exploring different rela- tionships, uncertainty about identity, ambivalence about dependency). An overly protective approach to young people (e.g. hiding the social realities of sex, drugs or conflicting world views from them by enclosing them in churchy activ- ities) can be psychologically misjudged too. Treating them like innocent children fails to help them with their current life tasks: survival skills in decision-making, exploring independence and responsibility. Viewed as a problematic period, churches may have low expectations for young people. This can manifest itself in a policy of entertaining young people and soft peddling Christianity in an easy-to-swallow or completely disguised form (for example, as merely a club with no explicitly Christian title or purpose), and waiting until the storms blow over. However, head-on, deep engagement with Christianity has much to recommend it when adolescent psychology is seen in terms of its riches. This can speak to teenagers’ and young adults’ search for identity, their clear sense of existential struggle and of the complexity of moral choices, and their doubts and their desire for truth beyond this. Orphans of independence The new psychosocial need for independence can obscure the significance of dependable relationships with adults in teenage years. As capacities for self-awareness increase, fuelling identity issues, there is a greater need for a wide range of sources for comparison. Greater self-awareness also means young people can be more  Childhood and adolescence 97 sensitive to messages about their self-worth – how others see them and support them. Well-intentioned separate youth programmes may cut young people off from a mainstream relationship with their church and suggest abandonment to – rather than support for – their emerging independence. Peer relationships do not always offer a reliable basis for religious nurture. Research shows teenagers typically grossly underestimate their peers’ religious beliefs – one study (Gibson 1994) of 900 British young people found that, while 49 per cent said they believed in God, only 22 per cent thought their friends did. Explanations of this include general lack of discussion about religion with peer group, the cultural promi- nence of secular views, and the possibility that atheist viewpoints are more voiced while religious belief is deemed conservative, or ‘goody goody’, and therefore some- thing to keep quiet about. Relationships with adults prepared to discuss matters of belief may help to reduce the misperception that ‘no one else is religious’. Adolescent confirmation psychology Thinking about confirmation (or similar rites that mark an autonomous decision in faith) can ignite the tension between the need for relationship and individual free- dom of identity. On the one hand confirmation is a statement about conforming to the community’s faith tradition. On the other it is the opportunity for a young person to realise their own voice in faith (following what others may have previously said on their behalf, for example, in infant baptism or dedication). Opposite ends of this inherent tension can be taken to extremes in the young person’s mind. The con- forming aspect may appeal to some for unhealthy reasons; it may signify a regressive avoidance of developing conceptual independence. Or it may put them off altogether. For others the independence aspect can be off-putting; it may seem too onerous a decision to take alone, too ‘adult’. Young people can be helped to recognise and resolve this tension. For example, against the background of a shared conformist faith they may have opportunities to develop a new kind of religious identity and autonomy through opportunities to speak for themselves and take on responsibilities in church. Faith structure – the master story James Fowler’s (1981) research on faith development (see Chapter 6) observes there is often a shift in adolescence from the ‘story mode’ to a ‘master story mode’. This entails a desire to search for, and discover, a master narrative that can pull earlier stories and experiences into one meaningful whole: a unifying ideology or worldview. The appeal of ideology, which may be religious faith, a particular form of churchmanship or perhaps a political, environmental or ethical cause, reflects ado- lescents’ new intellectual skills. They also become better at reflecting on their own cognitive processes, observing how knowledge is acquired and evaluating the valid- ity of its sources. They are proactive in seeking the best fit for their various views and experiences. Whether or not the resulting world view (Fetz and Reich 1989) is 98 Development and teaching overtly religious, it will be an attempt to incorporate their religious stance in some form. Increased awareness of their own mental processes also helps them to realise the limits of knowing, and suggest an exciting category of things that it is logically impossible to know, which can be important for faith too. Cultural change may have subtle but not fundamental effects on adolescent psychology. Among post-modern youth, a layering of many philosophies and world views should not be mistaken for the absence of ‘master-story’. Together these can have the same function, in a sense a post-modern attitude of ‘every- thing goes’ (not the same as ‘anything goes’) is its own kind of master-story or ‘faith’ in such cases. Self-awareness and vulnerability Developments in self-awareness in adolescence (who I am, how others see me, how I feel about who I feel and think I am, and so on) can give rise to a different sensitivity to vulnerability. As young people’s sense of themselves increases, they recognise the ways in which they are not at the centre of things (though in their weaker moments they can be defiant about trying to make this the case after all!). They become aware of being ‘at the edge’ in terms of knowledge, power, adulthood, and of physical and sexual maturity. This can have implications for their faith, their spirituality, and their perception of the church. Faith may provide a source of support for some young people: when faced with the reality of their marginality they may nevertheless be comforted by the idea that they have a place at the centre of God’s concern. For many others this message is unconvincing in the face of so many other messages about their marginal, vulnera- ble, incomplete status. Between the ages of 11 and 16, many young people develop increasingly negative attitudes towards religion, and move from loving to punitive images of God (Francis 1992; Gibson 1994). Compared with religion, ‘spirituality’ may be more resonant with adolescent psy- chology. Many construe spirituality as less concerned with power, facts, belief claims and explanations, and more open, unfinished, questioning, and explorative (Nye and Hay 1996; Hammond et al. 1990; Wulff 1997). With their heightened sense of vulnerability, ‘religion’ can seem too self-assured and self-important to the young person, whereas spirituality offers languages and practices that are appeal- ingly ambiguous and uncertain about the sacred. Often the church is perceived by disaffected young people as a barrier to spiritual- ity, concerned with controlling thoughts and impeding free thinking. This too easily plays into a rebellious need to cast the ‘organisation’ as the enemy against which they must struggle as ‘individuals’. The church’s strength of identity forged over many years, its power and status, and the confidence of purpose it projects can deeply irri- tate their completely opposite feelings about themselves. They should not be shielded from opportunities to see that churches (and clergy) have their own areas of vulnerability and self-doubt. Equally, accepting some of these adolescent projec- tions can be an important check on ways in which the church can lose sight of its own limitations and sense of humility.  Childhood and adolescence 99 SUMMARY OF KEY THEMES Variety among adolescents, teenagers, and young adults. Avoiding ‘problematising’ adolescence unnecessarily. Psychological challenges: identity, sex, independence. The danger of ghettoising teenagers in their own clubs and services. The appeal of the ‘master narrative’. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Listen to the lyrics of a song currently in the charts. Why might this resonate with youth psychology? Does it reveal something about their spirituality too? What sorts of responses to you have towards adolescents? Interest? Annoyance? Do you feel threatened or uneasy in their presence? What is ‘adolescent’ about your church? (Remember to think about this in posi- tive as well as negative terms!) What is ‘adolescent’ about you? What influence does this have on your faith? Further reading Children’s psychology Herbert, M. (1988) Working With Children and Their Families, London: British Psychological Society and Routledge. The development of religious understanding in children Batson, C. D., Schoenrade, P. and Ventis, W. L. (1993) Religion and the Individual: A Social- Psychological Perspective, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Francis, L., Kay, W. and Campbell, W. (1996) Research in Religious Education, Leominster: Gracewing. Hull, J. (1990) God-Talk With Young Children: Notes for Parents and Teachers, Birmingham: University of Birmingham; Derby: Christian Education Movement. Children’s spirituality Hay, D. and Nye, R. (1998) The Spirit of the Child, London: Fount. Kimes Myers, B. (1997) Young Children and Spirituality, London: Routledge. Adolescents, teenagers, and young adults Robins, L. N. and Rutter, M. (1990) Straight and Deviant Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Various (1997) ‘The spirituality of young people’, The Way Supplement whole issue. 6 Religious development Development Religious development and teaching QUESTIONS FOR MINISTRY How can I grow as a Christian? Is there a normal pattern of stages of spiritual growth to which most people conform? Can recognising people’s different stages of religious development help to provide more sensitive pastoral support? What are the crises and stumbling blocks that can attend religious development? How can I recognise when people are caught up in abnormal develop- mental situations – when faith seems immature, stagnant, or off the wall? What is the spiritual journey a journey towards? What is it a journey away from? Introduction Change and growth affect us in every area of our lives. An understanding of psycho- logical development is a basic necessity in the Christian ministry toolbox. We can only be sensitive to people’s needs and gifts when we appreciate their developmental context – their previous history, current issues and future potential. Religious development is a central issue for Christian ministry, but its meaning can be difficult to pin down. On the one hand it stands for something at the heart of the Christian understanding of a religious life – a growing relationship with God involving significant and ongoing personal transformation. Pastoral support for reli- gious development in this sense is the raison d’être of Christian ministry. On the other hand, talk of religious development can suggest that spiritual growth is a quan- tifiable psychological variable like any other. Injudicious application of psychology’s perspective can distort Christian understandings of development, for example by implying that religious growth is constrained wholly by our psychological  Religious development 101 timetabling, or that religious maturity or immaturity are simply and objectively measurable. This chapter contains psychological ideas that may make it easier to recognise typical patterns in development, and suggests how, when handled with due caution, these can assist approaches to ministry. Many different kinds of metaphors have been used to characterise religious devel- opment: images of inner revolution, a journey, horticultural growth, changing nutritional needs, rebirth and death. Different metaphors illustrate the various char- acteristics involved in religious growth – God’s grace, our effort and accumulating experiences, the timeliness of change as a natural unfolding and, conversely, the dra- matic subversion of life’s ordinary timetables, for example in the image of rebirth. This rich mixture can be confusing – how do the metaphors translate into real lives? Lay understanding of what ‘religious development’ means reveals a degree of ambivalence. Many people experience a yearning to develop, driven by what Paul Tillich (1957) called ‘the urge to self transcendence’, a dim sense of our personal incompleteness. Yet too many regard the dynamic change inherent in ‘development’ as a threat to ‘solid’ faith, ironically resisting religious growth on religious grounds. Kenneth Stokes (1989) reports that 39 per cent of church members questioned in a USA study on Faith Development in the Adult Life Cycle said they believed a per- son’s faith should not change throughout life. In this chapter we shall explore the landmarks in normal patterns of human devel- opment, and the ways these can shape different aspects of religious growth. Addressing landmarks of intellectual, personal, social, emotional and faith develop- ment we need to consider: is there such a thing as a predictable pattern to Christian religious development? What might be the benefits and hazards of trying to antici- pate the course of faith? 102 Development and teaching Patterns of development Some of the most dramatic personal change occurs in the earliest years of our lives. The special care that is required for children’s ministry is dealt with in Chapter 5. The material in this chapter focuses primarily on adult development. It is important, however, to check the tendency to think of religious development as an exclusively adult pursuit. Childhood can be a very significant period for religious change. Jesus himself drew our attention to the subtlety of this issue in his instruction that a devel- opmental goal might be to become like little children; we should not restrict our attention solely to adult versions of maturity. Also, an appreciation of childhood’s patterns is essential to understanding our adult nature: we can see better where we might be going, if we know where we have come from. There is subtlety within adult development also. An awareness of this is especially important since a greater proportion of people come to faith these days as adults. In the UK, only a small minority (less than 15 per cent) have contact with a Christian denomination in childhood, and adolescence is no longer the primary period for conversions or confirmations (see Finney 1992). Ministry with adults is therefore more complicated than ever before: older adults may have a young faith, other adults with less life experience may have many years in the faith. It is difficult to know what to expect from such interactions of general development and religious development. Two kinds of tool seem necessary for this job: a working knowledge of some general patterns in psychological development, and a sense of the natural history of religious growth in particular. Since religious commitment engages us on so many levels – intellectual, emotional, social – the developmental psychology of each of these facets of mental life offers a distinctive and valuable set of resources that can be applied to people’s specifically religious development. Putting childish thought away? Developmental psychology identifies the hallmarks of the adult intellect as an ability to think in abstract terms, drawing on concepts and principles, and employing powers of logic and reason to most topics. Piaget’s analysis of intellectual develop- ment (see Chapter 5) is clear that adult thinking is distinguished by these qualities regardless of the differences in the quantity of knowledge a person has. Developing these general characteristics of ‘adult thinking’ would appear appropriate for think- ing about religion also. After all, religious thought involves understanding abstract meanings, extracting principles for living, and wrestling with complex ideas. With the benefit of secondary education, most people develop a general aptitude for logical thinking in readiness for adulthood. However, religious thinking does not always follow suit. For some people (or perhaps for all people, some of the time), more elementary ways of thinking about religious matters may continue to be cher- ished. Despite having an ability to think in more ‘abstract’ terms, it may seem safer to stay within the parameters of literal, or even more impressionistically emotional or sensory, kinds of thinking (see Chapter 5, especially boxes 5.1 and 5.2). It seems plausible that, for an adult, such an approach may have its own kind of primitive  Religious development 103 potency. However, when there is a mismatch between an adult’s everyday approach to thinking and their approach to religious thinking, that person may be suppressing opportunities for their own spiritual development. Sensitive pastoral support and permission for religious thinking to ‘grow up’ may help such people to face this chal- lenge successfully. The transition from thinking about religion in concrete, literal terms to a form more suited to the qualities of the adult mind can be a particularly awkward moment in religious development. Many adults seem frozen in a state of what Ronald Goldman called ‘11-year-old atheism’, ever since the emergence of adult rational logic made a literal interpretation of the religious tradition untenable (see Goldman 1964; see also Chapter 5). In such cases, recognising the form of the objection (an insult to adult ‘intelligence’) may help to frame approaches to adult evangelism, for example by presenting faith as a means of engaging with exceptionally difficult life questions, rather than as a set of simple, reassuring certainties. The awkward experi- ence of recognising that an earlier perspective on religion needs to be discarded and replaced with something quite different, can be a spiritually instructive and refresh- ing experience in itself. 104 Development and teaching When religious thinking has acquired the qualities associated with an adult intellect, there are two ways in which adults can feel uncomfortable about this development. Some adults may recall the literalistic religion of their childhood as relatively stronger and more ‘real’. They may feel guilty about having developed doubt, questions and alternative world views. Appreciating that these develop- ments are appropriate features of applying their adult intellectual abilities can assuage that guilt. The shift away from the passion of emotionally governed ‘thought’ (pre-operational stage thinking) or literal certainties (concrete stage thinking) does not need to be interpreted as a withering of faith when seen in the context of the normal process of intellectual development. For other adults, the revolution in religious understanding since their childhood may lead them to think that they did not have ‘real’ faith as children. For example, people may feel uncertain about the validity of religious commitments they made to a God they understood in simple, literal terms, when subsequent understanding has fuelled an apparently much more complex, deeply informed sense of God. Accepting that it is normal for our approach to thinking to change in these ways can help people feel more comfortable with the full course of their religious develop- ment and to identify the significance of their own (and others’) religious feelings regardless of intellectual understanding. SUMMARY OF KEY THEMES Benefits and hazards of thinking about religious ‘development’. Different metaphors for religious growth: gradual or revolutionary. Legacies of childhood religious development. How the development of religious thinking can lag behind more general intel- lectual development. Accepting the need for development in religious thinking. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Which metaphor (inner revolution, journey, organic growth, death and rebirth) do you favour as a way of thinking about your own religious growth? Why? What suggests to you that your faith is still developing? What has been the most constant feature of your faith; what has been the most changeable? Do you welcome change in your own spiritual and religious life? If so, why? If not, why not? Religion through the lifespan Despite the obvious changes that occur in the ways people think about religion during the course of their lives, religious development is perhaps more often about changes of heart than changes of mind. Psychological theories of emotional or per- sonality development are helpful here because they look at psychological patterns  Religious development 105 and processes in a way that resonates with traditional Christian ideas about spiritual growth and personal transformation. Such theories suggest distinctive ‘seasons’ of personal growth, outlining a possible pattern of natural stages in religious develop- ment too. Jungian ‘individuation’ C. G. Jung observed a special relationship between religious and personality development, especially in mid- to late adulthood. In the first half of life, the normal orientation of the psyche is extroverted as the ego works to establish a firm sense of ‘I’ in the material world. This achieved, in the second half of life a new kind of developmental process becomes possible – the ‘individuation’ process. Jungian individuation relies on the realisation that ego is not the whole self: there are deeper unconscious aspects to selfhood. The Jungian account of how adult per- sonality development can proceed – once the ego begins to realise this is not a ‘one man show’ – emphasises the importance of integrating psychological opposites. Examples include reconciling ‘outer world’ and ‘inner world’ orientations, and recognising the personal ‘shadow’ (the unattractive, darker aspects of ourselves), the anima (feminine side of male psyche), and the animus (masculine side of female psyche). By integrating these features, and finding a new balance in which the ego no longer rules in isolation but recognises its place in a much larger ‘whole’, the person can experience a radically different sense of completeness. (For more on Jungian individuation, see Chapter 15; and see Chapter 3 for a fuller explanation of Jungian personality types and orientations.) This rich account of personality development offers various insights applicable to ministry. It suggests, for example, that ministry should consider the special poten- tial for religious development that may be primed in mid- to late adulthood, since this ‘season’ of personality development may be specially ripe for a re-orientation towards the spiritual. It specifies the kind of spiritual activity someone at this point in life is likely to find necessary and rewarding, namely a re-orientation towards the significance of inner experience, and the desire to explore and integrate the neglected regions of personality. While supporting this, another pastoral task might be to keep in check the tempta- tion to become lost in inner exploration at the expense of more outward and ‘worldly’ religious activities such as mission or fellowship. Equally, the more inward spiritual orientation of older adults might be a useful frame for the typically more outwardly oriented younger adults, demonstrating the range of ways that religious energies can be invested and developed. Mismanaged, this kind of diversity of religious interests between people at different points in development might become a source of tension. Freud and religious development Freudian psychology has also been applied to religious development in at least two different ways. Sometimes it provides a developmental explanation of people’s attachment to religion (Rizzuto 1979). For example, religion can be seen as arising 106 Development and teaching from unresolved issues between infants and their parents. So, if people have had problematic relationships with their own fathers, those problems may be transferred to their relationship with God and constrain their religious development. The Freudian approach can also be used to provide a map of how people develop religiously, making use of the scheme of oral, anal and Oedipal (or genital) stages, though these are usually interpreted as rather loose metaphors (Faber 1976). At the first stage there is an emphasis on felt unity with God, at the next stage an emphasis on religious legalism, and at the third stage a movement towards a freer sense of rela- tionship to God. Erik Erikson’s approach to personality development provides greater attention to detail. Erik Erikson’s eight stages of development While Jung recognised a religious dimension in personality development in later life, Erik Erikson’s model of eight stages of development offers a different kind of attention to detail. He categorises the lifespan in terms of the social conditions people typically face at different stages of their lives. This offers a simple reminder of some of the important life events we might expect people to have faced, be facing or have yet to face (e.g. marriage, becoming a parent, retirement). Such ‘critical life events’ are very often crucibles for (initial) religious questioning and growth, especially when a number of important events coincide (Stokes 1989, Chapter 6). This underlines the fact that religious development is more often stimulated by features of our personal context, rather than the entreaties of a church-led agenda. Grasping such golden opportunities for religious develop- ment will depend on reaching out to meet people in these life experiences; conse- quently, having a way of making reasonable guesses about what and when these might be – having a degree of ‘developmental savvy’– is vital. Erikson observes important changes in our social context at various stages of the life cycle. We begin, in infancy, in a state of vulnerable dependence on other people. Then we pass through periods of tentative self-control and independence in childhood. In adolescence we begin a new kind of referential engagement with our social context, working out ‘who’ this independent person is in relation to a growing circle of signifi- cant others (e.g. peer groups, heroes, and role models). Early adulthood is typically a period when having new kinds of exclusive friendships (dating, marriage) are the pri- mary currency of the social context. In middle adulthood the social situation may revolve around providing for others, as parent, mentor, or in the form of greater responsibility for others in the workplace. Old age involves a degree of detachment from the familiar social world (facing loss in various forms: physical abilities, bereave- ments, retirement), and a final evaluation of personal integration. Erikson’s main message concerns the sequence of emotional conflicts that are primed at each social period. Our development depends on how these conflicts are resolved – positively or negatively (see Table 6.1). Positive resolution strengthens the personality for the ongoing journey through life, since the outcome furnishes the personality with a new virtue at each stage (hope, will, purpose, and so on). Unfa- vourable resolutions scar the personality and destabilise future development, and 107 Development and teaching Table 6.1 Erikson’s eight stages of development Stage Psycho-social conflict Outcomes Infancy Basic trust versus mistrust Hope or I’m dependent on others - can I trust in this system? withdrawal Toddler Autonomy versus shame and doubt Will or I can seize control in some areas, sometimes - is this compulsion independence met with encouragement, even when my efforts miss the mark? Pre-school Initiative versus guilt Purpose or I can more freely exercise my will, physically and inhibition emotionally - is taking such initiatives rewarding or too likely to end in tears? School age Industry versus inferiority Competence or I am aware of my peer group and our differing abilities inertia - am I basically competent or inferior? Adolescence Identity versus identity crisis Fidelity or I become properly self-conscious; who am I? with role repudiation whom and what should I identify? Early Intimacy versus isolation Love or adulthood I am ready to share my identity with special others - exclusivity how far can I give of myself in intimate relation? Should this risk be avoided altogether? Middle Generativity versus stagnation Care or adulthood I have distinctive experience to pass on - how far can I rejectivity extend a creative influence on others? Should I keep all my energies for myself ? Old age Integrity versus despair Wisdom or I take stock of my life as a whole, past, present and disdain limited future - does this ‘end game’ add up to a worthwhile synthesis and overall meaningfulness? Or has there been no point at all, and no time left to change this? the outcome is characterised as a kind of pathology (withdrawal, compulsion, inhibi- tion, and so on). As a pastoral tool, this model offers a way into the likely contours of people’s emotional lives from cradle to grave. In the emotional conflicts, and in the emergent virtues or pathologies, it is possible to discern a religious quality to development at almost every turn. This offers a way of making reasonable guesses about the particular spiritual concerns a person is likely to be open to working on, depending on their stage in life. For example, the early adulthood conflict  Religious development 108 Box 6.1 Erikson exercise For each stage in social development (e.g. infancy, toddler, and so on), identify someone you know, perhaps from your congregation. How has the psychosocial conflict associated with their current stage in life been apparent in your ministry with each of these people? Reflect on the ‘outcomes’ they are each working on. How can the positive outcome option (e.g. hope, will, and so on) be encouraged as a timely gift they bring to church life? ‘intimacy versus isolation’ is vital not only for developing human relationships, but also for developing intimacy in relationship with God. This may be a critical period of readiness in which to develop openness in prayer, for example, such that hopes and fears are honestly divulged before God, and also the time to recognise God’s intimacy towards us. A crucial feature of this tool as a reference for ministry is the provision it makes for seeing a person’s current religious life as a product of their emotional history. In some cases, poorly resolved conflicts may have prejudiced religious development, resulting in a kind of twisted growth. There may be some personal work to do, facing up to the legacies of long-forgotten periods of life, so that religious and personal development can proceed in synchrony. Occasionally it may be possible that reli- gious commitment itself can compensate for any missing or underdeveloped aspects of personal development. Imagine, for example, the plight of someone who had failed to develop a core sense of fidelity at the end of adolescence. Through positive forms of church fellowship, and perhaps a particular connection made with someone serving as a significant, reliable role-model, fidelity might be restored. Erikson’s theory of development has been employed by Meissner (1987) to for- mulate the human side of how people grow in grace. He sees grace as providing an additional resource that enables people to move on from one stage of psychological development to another when their own ego resources are insufficient. One attrac- tion of this object relations framework is that the focus is clearly on the development of relationships rather than intellectual development. If faith is primarily a matter of relationship with God rather than of cognition, that makes it a more appropriate approach than the Piagetian one used by Goldman. Another attraction of Meissner’s approach is that he keeps the theology and psychology more distinct than some other developmental theorists, such as Fowler (see next section). Though Erikson’s eight stages of development have become widely known, some may find his scheme over-complex. Michael Jacobs (1993), in Living Illusions, has offered a simplified model of just four stages, relating them more explicitly to reli- gion, and also to the developmental schemes of Freud (and of James Fowler, whose work is discussed in the next section). Jacobs’ first stage is Trust and Dependency. These are the dominant concerns for  Religious development 109 infants in their relationship with parents, and provide the basis for adults’ sense of relationship to God. Jacobs’ next stage is concerned with Authority and Autonomy. This is an important issue in the development of all children, and in religious devel- opment as well. There is a tendency to take pleasure in an absolute acceptance of authority, and a zealous performance of religious requirements, though alongside this issues of autonomy are beginning to surface. Next, for Jacobs, is the stage con- cerned with Co-operation and Competition where people are increasingly concerned with the authenticity of their religious experience and with finding their own iden- tity. This raises the question of how to find appropriate co-operation with the reli- gious community from such a stance. Jacobs’ final stage, concerned with Complexity and Simplicity, is something of an idealisation, as is often the case in stage models of religious development. It is concerned with finding the simple essence of religious faith through all the complexities of tradition and belief. Jacobs’ first three stages are seen as basically corresponding to the Freudian oral, anal and Oedipal stages mentioned above (for a fuller exposition, see Jacobs 1993). SUMMARY OF KEY THEMES Seasons of personal transformation in ‘lifespan’ psychology. Carl Jung’s idea of ‘individuation’: the process of personality integration. Being aware when people are ready for a period of transformation and growth. The emotional and spiritual challenges that attend each season of life. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Is your church a refuge for people who want to ‘find themselves’? Should it be? What does the Christian tradition have to offer to those on this quest? What would be unique to younger adults on this quest? Older adults? Have you encountered someone with passionate spiritual concerns that are very different from your own? How might this difference have been explained by your different stages in the life-cycle? Erikson describes development as moving from one emotional crisis to the next! How far does the church provide a ministry to those experiencing the particular kinds of crisis outlined here? Might there be special issues concerning the anima for male clergy? And the animus for female clergy? James Fowler’s Stages of Faith In this chapter we have seen how understanding general psychological development provides important clues about issues that can arise in the course of religious develop- ment. James Fowler’s (1981) Stages of Faith takes this a step further by identifying a developmental pattern for faith itself. He listened to people talk about their faith and  Religious development 110 Table 6.2 Fowler’s stages of faith Type of faith Characteristics Pastoral needs 0 Undifferentiated Faith emerges as a pre-language Positive early relationships of of trust. infancy to create the sense of ‘being in relation’, leading to a general attitude of trust about one’s place in the world. 1 Intuitive– Faith is led by imagination and Sensitive channelling and Projective feelings, mystery and curiosity. boundary setting will allow Thoughtful coherence is imaginative flow and offer an lacking, but there is an intuitive appropriate range of images in attraction to strong images onto which to invest. These vessels which overwhelming feelings of for faith need not always be power or powerlessness, safety religious images and stories – or danger can be projected and fairy-tales may be effective too. ‘held’. Emotion and curiosity can spill over into an unwitting fascination with darker material and images. 2 Mythic–Literal Faith becomes a kind of simple Opportunities to work within a thinking. Narrative and stories narrative mode as a way of provide the mental structure to connecting feeling and thought. a sequences of ideas, feelings or It is important not to let the values. Meaning and reflection religious life become limited to outside the story form have what can be thought about, but little to offer, all attention is keep a deeper engagement focussed on the powerful clarity process open through what can of the surface meaning. be experienced ‘in’ story. Otherwise faith will become a mental straitjacket – inflexible or untenable. 3 Synthetic– Faith becomes a form of loyalty. The coherence provided by Conventional It is influenced by self-awareness relationships needs to keep a and awareness of others. There is check on reality. Being too a growing sense of meaning to be idealistic about the value of found beyond the concrete – for community and harmony can example, in parable, in drawing shield important questions and ideas together. Faith is expressed admissions of diversity. in personal relationships with the Relationship breakdown (e.g. like-minded, and affirmed in feeling let down by a faith role feeling connected to the model) can destabilise faith consensus though conventional itself. There can be too much religious commitments. God and dependence on thinking like the the church are viewed in idealistic crowd rather than for oneself – interpersonal terms, a new form this may flatter leadership egos. of family. continued on next page 111 Development and teaching Table 6.2 Fowler’s stages of faith (cont.) Type of faith Characteristics Pastoral needs 4 Individuative– Faith becomes a style of self- There is a need to feel released Reflective directed examination and from patronising or authoritarian exploration of ideas, away from styles of church. Fellowship can the ‘people centred’ faith of seem unappealing, but totally relationships and roles. independent exploration can Coherence comes in intellectual become overwhelmingly lonely or pursuit of clearer understanding proud. Worship or prayer may and de-mystification. Emotion provide important moments to let and experience can be sidelined go of a self-managed objectivity. as analysis of meaning increases. 5 Conjunctive Faith becomes a symbolic space There is a valuable willingness where emotion and reason, to dialogue with very different tradition and the personal, and others, such as people of other numerous other apparent faiths. The renewed sense of paradoxes are held together. God as a mystery that reason Coherence is found in the alone can’t contain may creative, conscious tensions of inadvertently tip the balance opposites viewed as balancing towards God’s ‘otherness’. elements in the whole picture. Guard against the sense of With the insights of stage 4 alienation and aloneness that reasoning, there can be a may ensue, or a retreat into a nostalgic return to the value of private world of spirituality. symbol, story and relationship. 6 Universalising Faith is finally transformed into Protection from self-sacrifice a selfless state of relationship and exploitation. with God and everything in His creation. Faith of this kind is very rare. Expression is often found in a consuming commitment to higher, universal causes – justice, love Box 6.2 Fowler exercise What do you recognise of your own journey in Fowler’s stages of faith? Make a list of salient features and events in your personal life (in 5- or 10- yearly blocks). Include significant relationships, achievements and interests. Then try to recall the quality of your faith in each of these periods – your concept of God, of the church, of personal spirituality. How have these two areas (personal history and religious growth) been related for you? 112 Development and teaching life stories, and observed six types of faith-perspective among people ranging from four to eighty years of age. These different forms of faith shared a number of charac- teristics with staged development in other areas – thinking, morality, emotion, ego development and social conditions. This suggested a developmental sequence for the six types of faith – providing an interesting attempt to describe the typical life- cycle of faith. The ‘stages of faith’ idea has proved powerful and popular in Christian ministry, although Fowler does not insist this sequence is specific to Christian faith develop- ment, but rather sees it as a pattern of growth and modification that characterises any kind of faith. Fowler has not only worked on the theoretical aspects of religious development’s relation to stages of faith. He has also explored what these stages mean for more sensitive pastoral support of Christian growth. Table 6.2 summarises the key features of each stage of faith, and the pastoral support on which these depend according to Fowler. Fowler’s ‘stages of faith’ offers ministry a tool that can make short work of the many challenges of engaging with people’s religious development. We will discuss briefly the reasons to be cautious when using this tool, then look at the ways it can helpfully be applied within the context of ministry. Cautions and limitations It is unwise to have exact and rigid expectations about the age at which people will reach particular stages in their faith. Being older does not automatically mean having a ‘higher’ stage of faith. Most adults have stage 3 or 4 faith styles, some stage 5 and very few stage 6. An earnest form of adult faith can sometimes still demonstrate characteristics of stage 2 – which reflects more of a childlike psychology in terms of thinking, moral simplicity and so on. Age and lived experience provide foundations that are often necessary, but not sufficient, for key aspects of faith development. We also need to be cautious about the tool’s ability to predict the future course of a person’s faith journey. People are more likely to respond to the power of these stages to make sense of changes retrospectively, recognising a similar sequence to their faith history. More longitudinal research is needed to show whether people neces- sarily pass from one stage to the next in this sequence. So at best it suggests what growth could be like, but not what it should be. This tool is not meant to be used judgementally. Be wary of the temptation to equate higher numbered stages with a higher order of faith. Fowler is adamant that every stage has gifts for the church. Faith development is not about being ‘better’ than others, but adaptation in pursuit of what is personally best and authentic. This tool is designed to promote sensitivity, not to create conflict and condescension. Finally, be tentative about how valuable the stage characterisations are for individu- als seeking insights about their own journey. It seems easier to recognise generalisa- tions about other people’s religious development in these categories, but less easy to find a stage corresponding with the subtlety of one’s own faith. The sharp demarca- tion of separate stages does not always fit with people’s experience of development in adulthood; there is often a stronger sense of continuity and gradual unfolding.  Religious development 113 Pastoral applications of the ‘Stages of Faith’ model Bearing all these caveats in mind, the ‘stages of faith’ model can be applied success- fully and constructively in pastoral ministry in a variety of ways. The content may be best reserved as a heuristic for ministers, but sharing the methods more widely may be valuable for individual growth. There is virtue in encouraging people to talk (or write) about their faith in a way that listens out for the ways that changes in it are connected to other aspects of their lives. Framing faith and life as a unique ‘story’ can be a revelation. The story format of different chapters can encourage people to look out for themselves for an appropriate way for the ‘story so far’ to be followed up. Hearing other people’s faith stories is also an important way of appreciating the developmental quality of faith, and an ideal way to kindle fresh development. Identifying the nature of each stage may also be helpful in detecting ways in which people need to develop within that stage. The suggestions about the different ways in which coherence for faith is sought (stage 1: in emotion-laden images, 2: in narra- tives, 3: in the interpersonal, 4: in argument, 5: in paradox) point to the most likely means of contributing to development for each form of faith. For example, growth at stage 3 will not come through inspiring theological argument. Rather, faith is likely here to be sustained through opportunities to build up strong bonds of fellowship. Stage 3 faith will also feel supported by open leadership and a clear, uncomplicated approach to theology. However, extra effort may be required to avoid undue neglect of faith’s ‘difficult corners’, and to make clear the value for the spiritual life of being honest to oneself rather than unfailingly loyal to the perceived consensus. The potential for a strength of a particular stage (often the ‘coherence’ giving feature) to become a handicap if taken to extremes is worth taking into account in pastoral support for religious development; feeding a ‘dependency habit’ will imprison faith rather than help it grow. There may be a limit to how far one can go on developing within one kind of faith. This makes clearer what it might mean to be ‘stuck’ in terms of faith development, why it can be hard to get out of this rut, since it means giving up investment in the thing that has been of most importance. For example, people may find it p