Although this
edition, like original, features a table of contents that contains the
subdivisions of each chapter, nevertheless to enhance accessibility the luxury
of a separate table of contents had to be sacrificed. Likewise, all
bibliographical material has been moved into either the text or as an
additional reference at the end of each chapter. In addition, each chapter
exists as a separate HTML file which can be down-loaded with relative
efficiency, even by those with older machines. Links are provided at the end of
each file to move the reader either to the next chapter or else back to the table
of contents.
One feature, the
"Questions for Reflection and Discussion" at the end of each
chapter, which I had thought of dropping fearing that some readers
might find a bit intimidating (or in some cases, in their original form,
slightly outdated), I have decided to keep. Originally included as a stimulant
for classroom and small-group discussion --having been a teacher myself, I
realized how much these might enhance the value of the book for anyone faced
with giving out home-work assignments--it is hoped that these might now serve
even more as a means of helping the reader relate in a very personal way to the
matter at hand. For this book is not so-much about religion or beliefs in the
abstract, but rather, is about the psychology or even more, the psychodynamics
of religion or the process of faith. Unless each of us can relate what we read
to what we ourselves have gone through in terms of our beliefs, or even our
doubts and disbelief, what I have attempted to describe in this book will have
no relationship to the reality of our own life.
While it has
become fashionable in recent years to downplay the historical value of the
gospels, especially those parts that relate so-called "miraculous"
events, there appears a story (related in three of the four gospels) that
I have always found arresting and provocative when it comes to the subject of
faith. It is the one about Jesus coming to the apostles by walking across the
This story
(whether it be true or not) raises some very probing questions. Was Peter
really engaged in an act of faith or foolhardiness? What was the impetuous
apostle really thinking? Was it really their "Master" who was
approaching them across those stormy waves or was it an apparition of some kind
or even the figment of their own frightened imaginations? It seems that Peter
had to know for sure, for himself. There could be no passive waiting for him.
Yet, almost immediately, aghast at the risk to his own
life and paralyzed by fright, Peter began to sink. Seeking the assurance of the
Master's presence, Peter had risked himself, only to flounder in the waves of
doubt. Was it really Peter's faith or was it a lack of faith that had
impelled him to want to walk across the water to meet this strange figure that
approached them? Why couldn't he be content like the others to wait and see?
Was not the temporary security of the storm-tossed boat enough? Why insist on
the additional insurance of the Lord's presence when months before, on that
same lake, Jesus had insisted that faith itself was all that was needed?
How like Peter
we all are, even if we lack his boldness. Often we seem to believe, only to
doubt and lose courage when the going gets rough. There is an inborn tendency
in us to seek the security that faith would provide and, at the
same time, a profound aversion to take the risks involved. If Peter's
brash act of faith failed to meet the test, perhaps it was because Jesus
required of him a greater test of trust -- or of patience. But one thing is
sure: whatever was required of him involved a risk and at the same time a
commitment. Once venturing out on his chosen path of faith, Peter could not
afford to turn back or to lose courage, except at yet a greater risk. Faith, and life, are like that.
So we can not
avoid risk. The American philosopher and psychologist William James saw this
only too clearly. James' idea of faith, as we shall see, was based on the
pragmatic idea of "nothing risked, nothing gained." We cannot advance
spiritually (or any other way in this life) unless we are willing to let go of
the security that so often binds us to what is familiar and comfortable. In
other words, faith involves risk. Faith, then -- at least a living faith -- is
not so much a thing as an attitude or a way of life. And like life itself, it
is always on the move, always reaching out toward the future. "To live is
to change", said Cardinal Newman, "and to have lived fully is to have
changed often." Whatever doesn't change is already dead. Faith is alive
only when it grows, develops, and continually matures.
If I have
briefly turned to William James as someone who both underscored the dynamic
idea of faith and underlined its dangers, I have turned to Viktor Frankl even more to show how this dynamic works in our life
and on every level of faith. Ever since I first read Frankl's
own engaging account of his survival of the Nazi concentration camps many years
back, I have been convinced that his personal story, as well as his theories,
contains the essence of what the life of faith is all about. Over the years I
have attempted to apply his insights to several aspects of the spiritual life,
but it is only now that I have attempted to apply his thought, along with some
ideas borrowed from theologians Paul Tillich and
Avery Dulles, to a more thorough understanding of the structure and dynamics of
faith. Yet, if this book of mine were to be dedicated to anyone, I think Viktor
Frankl would be the most deserving of credit.
As far as the
stages of faith development used in this present book, they are based for the
most part on the work of James Fowler and his colleagues, as well as inspired
by the pioneering work done by forerunners in developmental psychology such as
Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lawrence Kohlberg,
along with others who have been brainstorming in this field as of late. I
should stress that my contribution is not meant either to endorse the work of
all these researchers as being the last word on this topic or, on the other
hand, to try to critique their findings in any serious way -- I am hardly in a
position to do so. Much the same could be said of the earlier work of Pierre Babin in
So what this
book most of all proposes to do is not so much to spell out all the details of
the various stages or levels of faith as to try to help the reader understand
why it is that all too often our faith fails to develop as it should. In this
respect faith development becomes synonymous with "spiritual
development" or growth in spirituality, even holiness. In this vein, even
my use of Frankl, like my use of the latest in
developmental research and theory, is primarily meant to help us understand the
particular challenges that face us at each stage in hopes that we will be able
to guide ourselves to a more mature spiritual life as well as a better
understanding of the psychodynamics of faith.
It is here,
especially when it comes to the higher reaches of spirituality, that we come
full circle and will find, I maintain, that the wisdom
of the great mystics and religious thinkers of the past remains eternally valid
even when understood in a new light. Thus what I have borrowed from Frankl is only a new restatement of the central truth
behind all religious faith, when it is actually and authentically lived.
Although regrettably,
since the first publication of this book, Viktor Frankl
has passed from this world (as well as Karl Rahner
--- another luminary of our time) there are others to whom I am indebted
and who are fortunately still with us. Among them is Donna Kustusch,
O.P., who first introduced me to the work of James Fowler some years before the
publication of his first major book, as well as those who read through much of
this manuscript before it's initial publication, among
them being Bruce Gotts, Tim Uhlmann,
Tony Morse, Shelly Fitzgerald, and Mary Flinn. Special thanks is due to Larry Boadt,
CSP, at Paulist Press. under
whose guidance this book first took its printed form.
Richard W. Kropf,
December, 1998
Further Acknowledgments:
All
scriptural quotations, unless otherwise noted, were taken either from The
Jerusalem Bible, edited by Alexander Jones or The New Jerusalem Bible,
edited by Henry Wansbrough, both published by
Doubleday and Company, 1966 and 1985.
Passages
from The Teachings of the Second Vatican Council are as edited by
Gregory Baum, and published by The Newman Press in 1963.
I
also wish to acknowledge the following publishers and holders of copyrights:
The
Bollingen Foundation for material taken from The
Collected Works of C.G. Jung, published in the
Crossroad
Press for material from Avery Dulles, The Survival of Dogma, 1982;
Doubleday
and Company for material from Hans Kung's Theology for the Third Millennium:
An Ecumenical View, translated by Peter Heinegg ( 1988) ;
Harper
and Row for James W. Fowler's Stages of Faith: The
Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (1981) and
Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian: Adult Development and Christian Faith (1984);
and for the passage quoted from Paul Tillich's The
Dynamics of Faith (1957);
Herder
and Herder for passages from Pierre Babin's The
Crisis of Faith: The Religous
Psychology of Adolescence, translation by Eva Fleischner,
1963;
The
Institute for Carmelite Studies for a quotation from The Collected Works of
St. John of the Cross, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh
and Otilio Rodriguez (1973) ;
New
American Library for material taken from Viktor E. Frankl's
The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy (1969);
W.W.
Norton for selections from Erik Erikson's Young
Man Luther (1958) and Gandhi's Truth (1969);
Random
House/Vintage publishers for the quotations from: Alan Watts, The Wisdom of
Insecurity, originally published by Pantheon Books, 1951; Viktor Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul: From
Psychotherapy to Logotherapy, originally
published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., (1955, 1965).
The
Religious Education Association of the
Simon
and Schuster, for passages taken from Viktor E. Frankl's
The Unconscious God: Psychotherapy and Theology (1975); Viking Penguin
Co. for the passage quoted from the 1970 edition of Abraham Maslow's
Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences (from The Further Reaches of
Human Nature, copyright 1971 by Bertha G. Maslow).
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