…stories of growth and stages of belief…
You heard in the news last week about the college kid who stole a Eucharistic Host after receiving communion in a Catholic Church? (The article appears here http://www.wftv.com/news/16798008/detail.html and http://www.wftv.com/news/16806050/detail.html.)
And the Catholic Church was of course in an uproar about this. And then this blogger, PZ Myers Read the rest of this entry »
I just finished reading “Called to Question” by Siser Joan Chittister, a true Mystic if ever there was one. Since she is a nun, she of course started out as a traditional believer. The whole book expounds on a personal journal she wrote during a phase when she was questioning her faith. There are no particular entries that describe a Rational stage of faith but the period of questioning would be typical of that stage.
Much of the book speaks of Joan’s wrestling with the line between the traditional religious Read the rest of this entry »
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Are We Really All One?
More and more these days we hear instances of people saying they have come to realize that We All Are One. Some of these people have just latched onto the concept in an artificial sense after hearing about it elsewhere. Others reportedly have actually experienced Read the rest of this entry »
My younger son Tony is taking an online English course through his university this summer. He says the prof has the class “in a very cumbersome world of belief and spirtual readings now.” (Tony’s words. I hope the prof isn’t reading this!) But he was sure I would be interested in one of the assigned readings so he sent me the link.
The piece is by a certain Read the rest of this entry »
Amazon.com really has me pegged! You know how when you buy one book from them a message always pops up saying “people who bought that book also bought this other one!” Well, now they have taken to sending me an E-mail every so often saying they are sure I would be interested in such and such a book, based upon what I have bought in the past. Usually I try to ignore their suggestions. I give them more than enough business as it is!
But just before I left for Read the rest of this entry »
No, I have not given up on my blog. I had the chance to travel to Alaska for six weeks to visit my husband. He has been called up to Active Duty in the Army and is spending the better part of a year in Fairbanks. I was lucky enough to get time off from my regular job for an extended visit. We toured around for a while but when he had to get back to work, I spent my days at the local library putting in Read the rest of this entry »
This is a stage many people never reach at any age. While there are no statistics on what percentage of people ever reach the Mystical level, we can assume it would be somewhat rare before middle age. Most likely it is more typical of older people who have had time to let all their life experiences “gel” into a form of wisdom that gives them this perspective.
Here it is very important that we establish a clear distinction between this Mystic level of faith and what popular culture may refer to as “mysticism.” Mysticism is Read the rest of this entry »
Various authors differ as to when the Rational stage tends to arise. Apparently in some cases it arises late in adolescence but often can be delayed until mid-adulthood or even permanently.
The Rational Stage is more or less equivalent to Peck’s Stage III which he named the Skeptic, Individual Stage. He called them Skeptic because they demand scientific Read the rest of this entry »
The Faithful stage tends to arise some time in childhood. In some cases it lasts only until adolescence but sometimes a person gets stuck at this level for the better part of a lifetime.
The Faithful stage is more or less equivalent to Peck’s Stage II or what he called the Formal, Institutional , Fundamental Stage.
What Peck meant by saying people at this stage are Formal is not so much that they are stiff about social Read the rest of this entry »
