From Structuralism to Eternity? Re-Imagining the Psychology of Religious Development After the Cognitive-Developmental Paradigm

Religion, Spirituality, and Positive Psychology in Adulthood: A Developmental View

“…Fowler and critical appraisers of Fowler's work (see Day 2001Day , 2007aDay , 2008aDay and Youngman 2003;Fowler 1981Fowler , 1987Fowler , 1996Tamminen and Nurmi 1995) have observed that his model is a multi-factorial model, given that its construct of ''faith'' is sufficiently broad to include dimensions associated with Piaget's notions of intellectual development, Kohlberg's model of moral development, Erikson's stage model of identity construction, Loevinger's and Levinson's concepts of ego development, Selman's model of role-taking, and Kegan's concepts of self. For Fowler, this development involves ''a dynamic pattern of personal trust in and loyalty to a center or centers of value'' whose orientation can be understood in relationship to the person's trust in and loyalty to a core set of ''images and realities of power'' and ''to a shared master story or core story'' (Fowler 1981(Fowler , 1996.…”

“…Oser and colleagues (Kamminger and Rollett 1996;Oser and Gmunder 1991;Oser and Reich 1996) have argued for the soundness of their stages as meeting the criteria of ''hard stages'' (see also Vandenplas-Holper 2003). Fowler himself has agreed that his stages may be conceived as more flexible descriptions of ways of constructing and elaborating global meanings in terms of life orientation and commitment and has observed that Oser's stages are more restrictive in terms of content, and movement within the hierarchy of stages contained in their models, and Oser et al have agreed (see also Day 2001Day , 2007aDay , 2008aDay and Naedts 2006;Day and Youngman 2003). Common, indeed central, to both models are the notions of stage and sequence as they are known in the work of Piaget and Kohlberg (Day 2008a).…”

“…In so doing, we are well aware that alternative models for thinking about religious and spiritual development provide much food for thought, and for practice, drawing on a host of traditions in psychological theory and practice, including neo-psychoanalytic traditions (Day 2009b;Jones 1993;Rizzuto 1981), the theory of attachment (Day 2007b(Day , 2008b, narrative, socio-cultural, and social constructionist approaches (Day 1993(Day , 2001(Day , 2002(Day , 2007b(Day , 2008aDay and Tappan 1996;Day and Youngman 2003;Ganzevoort 1998Ganzevoort , 2006Gergen 1994Gergen , 2002Popp-Beier 1997;Streib 1991Streib , 1997Tappan 1989Tappan , 1992. On our view, these models, which emphasize affective variables and the richly contextual and storied quality of human existence, and adult development, merit equal attention to that devoted to the cognitive-developmental models we treat here, and we would hold that it such models should be treated as complementary, rather than competing approaches to structural-developmental ones (Day 2007a(Day , b, 2008a.…”

Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence: Moving to the Scientific Mainstream

“…It's a person's way of responding to transcendent value and power in such a way that the trust in and loyalty to the source of transcendence integrate our identity and give our lives unity and meaning (Fowler, 1981). Although stage theories such as Fowler's have been criticized for its strong cognitive basis and for suggesting that children are limited to less mature faith (e.g., Balswick, King, & Reimer, 2005;Day, 2001;Loder, 1998;Streib, 2001), they have been invaluable in allowing the study of the transcendent domains of religion, spirituality, and faith to gain more serious consideration.…”

Islamic Beliefs in Compulsory Islamic Studies (Islamiyat) and Cognitive Development: an investigation

“…The development of cognitive psychology presented a theoretical framework which was not only adopted but also applied to the field of religious experience and the development of religious thinking. Religious educators and academicians, in both places of worships and school settings, may obtain information useful in formulating the psychological basis of curriculum design for religious instructions (Korniejczuk & San Martin, 1993;Grimmitt, 2000;Day, 2001). …”