Faith Development Theories are the interdisciplinary approaches that help people understand the development processes of religious values and behavior in the human life cycle (Lewis, 2013). By understanding the stages of Faith Development Theories in human life, helps in enhancing the interaction and understanding between the believers. It is true that human faith grows and changes over the life span because there is a significant difference between how a person understood a certain faith ten years ago in comparison to the way he/she currently understands the same meaning that faith develops as human develops as well.
James Fowler's Faith Development Theory is one of the fascinating theories of faith development because it provides different stages of the faith development of an individual, making it more understandable. The approach also distinguishes the stages using the age of the person, making it easy for any person to classify or identify the stage an individual falls in by using the age of the person. It is also important to note that Fowler did not define faith in relation to any religion but describes it as a way that people relates to the universe and create meaning eliminating biases from the definition because it is not in line with any form of religion or faith.
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The strengths of Parks Theory of Faith Development is that it provides spiritual development in childhood and adolescent stage of individuals enabling people to understand how children develop from infancy to adolescent in terms of spirituality (Coyle, 2011). The definition of faith in the parks theory of faith development is not very inclusive in comparison to that of Fowler, and this becomes a weakness because it cannot apply to all the religions. On the other hand, the strength of Westerhoff's four stages of faith development includes providing an explanation of faith development across the entire lifespan of an individual. However, it has a weakness of describing the leading cause of changes in the faith of an individual. It is important to understand developmental stages in faith because it can help in making a decision that can help people, especially adolescent who are usually in the stage of finding the footings in the world of spirituality.
References
Coyle, A. (2011). Critical responses to faith development theory: A useful agenda for change? Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 33(3), 281-298.
Lewis, R. D. (2013). Individuation and faith development in adolescence and emerging adulthood. St Mark's Review, (224), 42.
