Tn the 1980’s several scholars critiqued developmental ideas about faith, and also the focus on defining adolescence as being about independence. In short, some of this critique was about the male tendency to always see the spiritual as the “other”, as external, or something to be attained. Thanks to Erikson and other theorists, identity became about separation from one’s parents and the forging of independence.
These people including, Carol Gilligan and Gabriel Moran, I think quite rightly suggested that spiritual growth might be just as much about interdependence and integration. To see spiritual growth as a web is to see it not about as going somewhere else, or becoming more independent, or even about becoming someone other than who we are. The web as a metaphor is about the divine being with and within us, and about deepening interconnectedness. It is about an inner journey of discovery the sacred in who we are being directly connected to an outward journey of discovering the sacred in others. Continue reading →
The metaphor of journey or pilgrimage is a familiar one across a range of religions and spiritualities. Unlike a ladder, which has discrete steps and a direct destination, a journey is more fluid and uncertain. Of course, the focus is more on the travel itself than the destination, which may be known, but one’s state of being at the point of arrival is undetermined. In other words, how you travel shapes who you are when you arrive. The journey itself is (almost) everything – a pilgrimage is NOT directionless or purposeless, even though both of these might not be entirely clear until one is on the journey.
The image of a ladder is one of growth taking place through a series of steps or stages, or rising upward and higher. This can be seen in terms of enlightenment, but also in ‘rising above’ the old life or former stage. As such, it is prevalent in a range of spiritualities or faiths, from some eastern faiths, to the kind of Christian evangelicalism that speaks of ‘rising up’, God and heaven being ‘above us’, and sanctification or holiness being cumulative. Classical spirituality spoke of climbing mountains as a metaphor for growth. James Fowler’s stage as of faith also contain this notion of faith as a series of stages through which people must move. With such a metaphor, a person needs a teacher or truth-teller to bring knowledge, wisdom or enlightenment to aid growth. This kind of growth is not only cerebral though, it is about the person or their spirit attaining successive degrees of maturity, holiness or ligthness of being. Of course, the negative side is gnosticism, with the teach holding secret wisdom that can be obtained through other channels.
