Theologian James Fowler theorized six stages of spiritual development. he fashioned these closely to other theories of development such as cognitive and social. Fowler believed that many adults stay in stage three/synthetic development. This is the stage just after the mythical stage and it means that the individual can think abstractly, but has never questioned their own beliefs, instead choosing to remain with the beliefs of whatever was told to them. Fowler went on to say that very few people reach the final stage, stage 6. He gives Martin Luther King and Gandhi as individuals who have reached the final stage which basically involves a higher consciousness of humanity, and the ability to be a religious teacher and relate to anyone of any age and any faith.
Please describe where you feel you are at in your spiritual development.
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10 responses to “Spiritual growth”
I have my own ideas on spirituality that don’t include any sort of deity, relationship with some outside force, or rules whereby 2 people can perform the exact same action, and one is doing something right and the other is doing something wrong.
@Jear77 spirituality can actually be defined as our life experience
What is sought is enlightenment. Singular. Unifying . Absolute.
But we as a race like BS (Belief Systems). While BS can have many different colors and textures (as unique as we might want to believe), it is still just BS. It all comes from the same place, and serves the same purpose.
I can understand and relate to many different religions and belief systems, because I’ve walked through a number of them and studied and many more.
They are all the same because they are “of us”: us trying to prove ourselves; us trying to save our selves (fear); us trying to procure for ourselves (greed); us desperate to be right (righteous) in and of ourselves; us as “knowers-of-all and judges-of-all (deity).
But enlightenment is not of us. It is beyond us. We cannot make it come to us. We have to shed whatever is necessary and make the sacrifices necessary to go to it.
I understand the need to create hierarchies of enlightenment. They perhaps have worth.
But the words of a wise Elder keep coming to me. “A proclamation of enlightenment, is an admission of failure”.
So even if I have an inkling of where I might fall in some ranking list, I would not want to sabotage the process with a claim!
@griz maybe. not sure what your definition of enlightenment is. mine would be to be full of light. Are we as a people full of light? No. Am I? No. Are you? Don’t know.
@Scarlett
When I speak of enlightenment I’m thinking of being at (as?) One with the Light of Life. No separation or division. (Which has led more than a few spiritual sects to assert that death as we know/fear it is just an Illusion that we empower)
It is alleged that Jesus lived in this reality of enlightenment; although he also experienced the burden of flesh. He still found uses for fasting and praying as a way of overcoming the burden of flesh.
And allegedly that enlightenment, that Oneness with Light and Life, was broken for the first time ever at the moment of his physical death. That’s why it was such a Monumental sacrifice.
It is further alleged that “a swap” was made possible at that moment: Christ tasted the ultimate consequence of our Darkness; so we can taste Unity with the Light.
The base nature of Spirit is to return to Light: so Christ arose.
The base nature of flesh is to return to Darkness.
The moment we sin against God again we return to Darkness and our allegorical diaper needs changing. Forgiveness. Cleansing. Restoration is once again provided by the sacrifice of Christ re-acknowledged.
And we entered back into the fellowship of Oneness with Light.
It is an interesting, and entirely unique process. I’ve not come across a shade or copy of it anywhere. (Sometimes not even in the Christian churches who are supposed to know about it!)
The Apostle Paul’s assertion that it is both an event and a lifetime process continues to confound both lay people and Scholars.
My spirituality would freeze beer!
@ladybarbara hmmmm, how so.A baby seal? Freeze beer? Are you okay?
@Scarlett Registered as a Modoc in a family that has not mixed with “white” enough to not be monitored and accounted for. Modocs were aggressive and killed wagon trains of white settlers, not to mention the killing of Major General Edward Canby. My Grandma was the first generation from the captured Indians of the Modoc War. So, my birth mother is the 2nd generation and I am 3rd generation. I think we all have to be monitored until the 7th generation. At least we don’t have to live on our reservation in Klamath, Oregon. My family line is from the liniage of Chief Kintpaush. We are short in stature and known to be nasty tempered, according to the 1875 U.S. Army. 53 Indians held off 3000 troops of the U.S. Army and 142 years of the U.S. Government not trusting us. So, next life —- pure whit baby seal. That way, I only have to be frightened of fur trappers with big clubs.
I am in the 7th stage. I have seen the totality of All and decided that it makes me tired.
The moment we feel we are “all that and a bag if chips” (wondering if you have ever heard that expression) I thing we really come to understand our insignificance to the whole.
A stupid dum dum bulleti took out Dr. King before he finished his work…if anyone’s “work” can ever be finished…the bullet is a part of the All. The triggerman is a part of the All. As individual pieces of the All, they are the minutia that overwhelmed something greater. That’s what makes me feel tired. Knowing that coexistence with those in stages one through six is serves to influence a flattening of ambition to set oneself apart.
@spitfire3dc maybe It is like this. Maybe God is infinite reality, a reality that began with the Big Bang, and we as a part of that infinite reality can contribute to it, the more light we add to that infinite reality, the brighter it becomes.