Westerhoff proposes a hierarchy of stages through which individuals
travel in order to develop mature faith in God. At each of these stages
faith has a distinctive style. One style of faith is not better than another
just as a young tree with one ring is no less a tree than an older one
with four hundred rings. Experienced faith is not an incomplete faith.
One seeks to act with other believers in community and hence to expand
into new styles of faith, not so as to possess better or greater faith,
but only to mature in faith.
For a tree to grow it needs a proper environment: light, air, food,
space, etc. A poor environment arrests the growth of the tree. So it is
with the nurturing of faith. Just like the growth of a tree, growth in
faith is a slow process which continually adds to what it already has.
Progression from one style of faith to another does not discard the former
but holds on to it and builds on it.
Westerhoff identifies four stages which he calls experienced faith,
affiliative faith, searching faith and owned faith. His purpose for expanding
on these stages is to make all who are in a position to teach and influence
children become more responsive to the child’s character.
Westerhoff concludes that, because people in the church are at different
stages in the development of their own faith, a combination of different
‘educational’ approaches is needed. The Holy Spirit uses experiences to
help believers move from one style of faith to another. This happens, under
the authority of Scripture, through modeling and through engagement in
situations that challenging to go beyond the present style of faith. Every
church, therefore, needs a variety of educational environments and experiences
that foster the expansion of faith. Westerhoff’s stages and styles of faith
present a very useful tool for the consideration and development of a responsive
methodology. His conclusions are largely in line with those of Fowler
and Vrijmoed. Each has chosen to group and
characterize the stages differently but all agree on the main aspects.
Westerhoff provides few suggestions that can guide in the development
of responsive methods of teaching and modeling. His work seems to be rooted
in much pastoral experience. He does not present any research neither does
he provide literature references to confirm his conclusions.
Affiliative faith (usually childhood and early adolescence)
The person seeks to act with others in an accepting community with
a clear sense of identity.
Affiliative faith has three characteristics:
1 A need to belong: We need to feel that we belong to a community and
that through our active participation, we can make a contribution to its
life. Persons with affiliative faith need to participate in the community’s
activities, such as serving at a fellowship meal, singing in a choir, having
a part in a Christmas celebration, participating in a service project,
belonging to a group in the church where they know everyone’s name and
where they will be missed when absent. Of crucial importance is the fact
that we are wanted, needed, accepted and important to a community.
2 The importance of the heart, the feeling aspect: In terms of faith,
actions in the realm of the affections are prior to acts of thinking. This
is why participation in the arts - drama, music, painting, story telling
- are important to the faith. Ceremonies and rituals are important because
they are opportunities to act in ways that enhance the religious affections.
Opportunities for experiencing awe, wonder, and mystery are needed by all
of us.
3 A sense of authority and identity: The church must constantly be
aware of its story and its tradition. We need to hear and tell that story,
and we need to act so as to internalize our story. While faith is first
experienced enactively, it is next experienced in images or stories. Learning
the community’s story is, therefore, an essential of the faith.
Searching faith (usually late adolescence)
Searching faith has three characteristics:
1 There is much doubt and/or critical judgment, the need to act over
against the understanding of faith acquired earlier. In order to move from
an understanding of faith that belongs to the community to an understanding
of faith that is our own, we need to doubt and question that faith. At
this point the ‘religion of the head’ becomes equally important to the
‘religion of the heart’. Acts of the intellect, critical judgment, and
inquiry into the meanings and purposes of the story and the ways by which
the community of faith lives, are essential
2 Experimentation is common. There is a need to explore alternatives
to our earlier understandings and ways and a need to test our own traditions
by learning about others
3 There exists a strong need to commit our lives to persons and causes:
young people may seem sometimes fickle, giving themselves to one ideology
after the other, sometimes in rapid succession and on occasion in contradiction.
That’s how we learn commitment.
Owned faith (Usually early adulthood)
The movement from experienced faith and affiliative faith through searching
faith to owned faith is what historically has been called ‘conversion’.
Conversion (gradual or dramatic) involves a major change in a person’s
thinking, feeling, and will: his behaviour and needs are obviously different.
There is a desire to put faith into personal and social action. Typically,
persons with owned faith want to witness to that faith in both word and
deed. They struggle to eliminate any dissonance between their faith as
stated in their beliefs and their actions in the world. “Whoever claims
to be dwelling in Christ, binds himself to live as Christ did.”
Owned faith, personal faith, is God’s intention for every person. To
reach owned faith (our full potential) is a long pilgrimage in which we
need to be provided with an environment and experiences that encourage
us to act in ways that assist our growth in faith. Christ died for all,
no matter what style of faith we possess. None are outside his redeeming
grace.