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James W. Fowler

James W. Fowler Biography

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“In addition to the kind of critical reflection on one's previous assumptive or tacit system of values we saw Jack undertake, there must be, for Stage 4, a relocation of authority within the self. While others and their judgments will remain important to the Individuative-Reflective person, their expectations, advice and counsel will be submitted to an internal panel of experts who reserve the right to choose and who are prepared to take responsibility for their choices. I sometimes call this the emergence of the executive ego. The two essential features of the emergence of Stage 4, then, are the critical distancing from one's previous assumptive value system and the emergence of the executive ego. . . . We find that sometimes many persons complete half of this double movement, but do not complete the other.”

FaithExecutive EgoStage 4
Book:Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
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“The limitations of literalness and an excessive reliance upon reciprocity as a principle for constructing an ultimate environment can result either in an overcontrolling, stilted perfectionism or "works righteousness" or in their opposite, an abasing sense of badness embraced because of mistreatment, neglect or the apparent disfavor of significant others.”

ReligionFaithBeliefLiteralnessStage 2
Book:Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
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“I believe faith is a human universal. We are endowed at birth with nascent capacities for faith. How these capacities are activated and grow depends to a large extent on how we are welcomed into the world and what kinds of environments we grow in. Faith is interactive and social; it requires community, language, ritual and nurture. Faith is also shaped by initiatives from beyond us and other people, initiatives of spirit or grace. How these latter initiatives are recognized and imaged, or unperceived and ignored, powerfully affects the shape of faith in our lives.”

PeopleWorldBelieveHumansKindSpiritFaithLanguageI BelieveSocialGrowsCommunityEnvironmentGraceOur LivesDependsBirthShapesCapacityUniversalLatterRitualInitiativeNurtureIgnoredInteractive
Author:James W. Fowler
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