Critique assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critique - Assignment Example In this context, it is clear that the model has solemn faults when used as a cognitive and psychosocial explanation of religious faith, but to some extent, it has strong points to be noted. The Stages of Faith and moral development model is characterized by Fowler’s designation of faith. He defines it as â€Å"worldwide quality of human being meaning making†. It describes the fundamental meaning-making process utilized by all individuals regardless of their beliefs. To the author, faith occurs as persons place individual loyalty and trust in or many â€Å"centers of value† such as money, religion, power, and family The model of development suggests that this structure remains uniform in spite of whether individuals are side with a spiritual or unspiritual centre of value (  Fowler 67). As a result, the faith development model centers at the psychological issues that make possible the operation of faith but does not address any detailed faith content; that is, t he specific faith beliefs and values of a given religion. The use of a structural technique by Fowler to systematize the faith developmental phases and how he defines faith are challenging in a manner. Being a structural theory, most readers assume that faith development clarify in a consistent way across hierarchical, universal, and irreversible stages. According to psychological research, development entails much more variability and a rigid stage as theory is inadequate in its capability to confine diversity and richness of religious development. Further, critics differ with the logic behind Fowler’s elimination of sacred content from the development stages of faith. The exclusion was based on the concept that faith entails trust and loyalty to centre of value and has no need of intellectual accord to any definite assertions. One scholar by the name of Jones T.P (20040 criticized this element of Fowler by arguing that Christianity involves trust and loyalty in Jesus Christ . As a centre of value, yet at the same time, it is a â€Å"content-requisite faith† that is base on recognition of certain beliefs like the existence of God, Jesus’ resurrection from the departed, and Jesus as the son of God and messiah. Agreeing to other contents and beliefs apart from Christian principles is regarded as idolatry. The weakness of Fowler’s description of faith as a worldwide construct detach from religious context is that it is contrary to faith’s definition of content requisite spiritual groups (  Fowler 70). 3 strong points of James Fowler’s theory Concrete operational thinking This is a strong idea developed in the first stage of Fowler’s theory. Affectively, the decree of oedipal factors or their immersions in latency are vital accompanying factors. In the middle of transition from one stage to another is a child’s growing concern to basically know how things are and to make clear personally the foundations of differences between what is factual and what solely seems to be. The birth of imagination This is a strong point in the first stage of Fowler’s theory. He puts forward the ability to grasp and unify the experience-world in influential images as illustrated in