Practicing Across Life
It may seem odd to talk about practices across the whole of life. I contest, however, that there are some practices which see us through the various stages of our development. In this class, we’ll talk about the stages of faith development. You may have heard of the psychologist Erik and Joan Erikson’s “Stages of Development” or James Fowler’s “Stages of Faith.” While I don’t subscribe fully to stage theory (I have hangups about the idea that we might permanently move from one to another), these are illustrative of a pattern we see in human life. Our faith, and particular practices of faith, can help us mark a “change of stage.” We can be initiated into new ways of being, thinking, praying, incorporating.
Additional Resources:
Becoming Human: Brian Taylor
Taylor's succinct summations of what Jesus taught―Don't worry; Love everybody; Help the poor; Become simple; Face into conflict; Change the world; Forgive yourself for being human, and so on―provide the basis for this series of reflections.
Do I Stay Christian by Brian McLaren
Especially the start of the third section of Brian’s book reflects further on the idea of “maybe I am just changing stages” of Christianity.
Learning How To See Podcast interview with Barbara Brown Taylor
Can Christianity inspire us to focus on what kind of human we want to be—instead of trying to prove we’re right?
As Brian explains, “You can leave Christianity, but Christianity won’t leave you. Christianity must be recycled, redeemed, and reconsecrated to be transformed.”
