Stages of Faith
An Interview with James Fowler

by Harold Kent Straughn

Straughn: Dr. Fowler, I'd like to begin by asking you to unfold in summary
form the six stages of faith as your research has developed them.

Fowler: All right. Inevitably this will be sketchy. If we start with
infancy-the time from birth to two years-we have what we call
undifferentiated faith. It's a time before language and conceptual thought
are possible. The infant is forming a basic sense of trust, of being at home
in the world. The infant is also forming what I call pre-images of God or
the Holy, and of the kind of world we live in. On this foundation of basic
trust or mistrust is built all that comes later in terms of faith. Future
religious experience will either have to confirm or reground that basic
trust.

Stage One: Intuitive/Projective Faith