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The Context
What is the historical context of faith from a psychological perspective?
Looking at the human condition from a secular, psychological approach, the perception of faith is based upon reflection and analysis of our experience. Specifically in the field of Developmental Psychology, which is the study of how, through time, we experience and can structure our lives to better understand ourselves and create meaning. This significance or meaning making can teach us how to cultivate and honor faith.
There are many developmental theorists, to name just a few: Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, Lawrence Kohlberg, James Fowler, and you may have heard of some of them such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Daniel Levinson or Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs. Developmental models posed by these theorists can be seen through many lenses: how we change through time physically, mentally, socially, morally, sexually and and how we can come to fulfill ourselves. These models help us to create a consciousness of our own existence so we may better live our lives. James Fowler in particular proposes a specific model for understanding the development of faith in his work Stages of Faith written in 1940. He studied and presents faith as the dynamic system that guides one’s life through fundamental sets of values, images and commitments identified with six developmental stages of faith. These stages move from the childhood of intuitive and imitative faith through conventional and then onto a self-transcendent maturity of faith. Faith for Fowler is the reason we find life worth living.
The Feminine Light Journey recognizes faith as an opportunity to care for humanity through the spirit of women. And yet it remains who we are and what we do to each other which create the dynamics of relationships and the impact in and of our lives.
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” – Carl Gustav Jung
This impact of our existence has been primarily understood as an awareness of what we do and the value attributed to what we do. However, might there be a new perception of faith that can reveal the worth of the very essence of being that affects action? The fact that genetically we all start out as female and then through the action of the DNA the male is generated suggests that women not only give birth to action, but primarily give birth from a place of being, the unseen world. Being represents female. Action represents male. Perhaps a new recognition of faith, one that speaks to the worth of being would give us the ability to create safer and happier lives leading us toward fulfillment. The Feminine Light Journey is the path toward increased self-knowledge as a woman, understanding the worth of being, and creating a desired impact of life.
An Insight
How can we as women show the way through our own value to live more fully?
Women can show the way to live more fully through our own worth and by recognizing that we create the meaning needed to embrace all of life and that we are the inspiration of life.
We can see the changes manifesting today as women are more influential and are emerging as the evolutionary forefront of faith. As women, we must embody and manifest a birth of our own faith, requiring us to accept and love better ourselves, an understanding of faith which creates an awareness of our significance allowing us to commit to the worthiness of our lives as distinct from men.
I represent the spirit of life and I know I must value my life to discover who I am and to live in the faith of myself.
The Survey
