Faith after Doubt

I read Kathy Escobar's book, “Faith Shift: Finding Your Way Forward When Everything You Believe Is Coming Apart” back in 2014 and I believe that was the first time I heard of James Fowler's book, “Stages of Faith.”

Brian McLaren is drawing on Fowler's idea along with many others, including Richard Rohr's book, “Falling Upward”, as he synthesizes research into a four-stage faith model. He uses an analogy of the rings of a tree that include and build on the previous stages. He tries to emphasize that later stages are not better or more advanced but it's hard not to think that they are. And as the title of the book suggests, McLaren sees doubt as vital to our process of moving and growing between stages. on our faith journey.

The four stages he discusses are:

Stage One: Simplicity - dualistic/binary thinking, a focus on right or wrong, and pleasing authority figures.

Stage Two: Complexity - pragmatic, focused on success or failure, achieving goals, being free and independent

Stage Three: Perplexity - critical/relativistic, values honesty/authenticity, sees through appearances to reality; skeptical of everything, beliefs, and institutions

Stage Four: Harmony - integral/holistic, focus on inclusion and transcendence, wants to find connection, make a contribution, values being compassionate, seeking the common good, assumes we are all connected, part of a greater whole.

Overall, this is a great book that I think many will find very helpful if they have been through any kind of “deconstruction” period in their faith. It is one of my favorites by Brian McLaren and I've read a lot of his books! (A Generous Orthodoxy was wonderful and a big catalyst for some of my own evolving faith journey.)