Conversations about the religious and spiritual life on the other side of fundamentalism
 
Category: <span>Faith Development</span>

277: It’s Not Faithless to Doubt: Spiritual Formation & Faith Crisis: Katie Harmon McClaughlin

We shouldn’t be more worried about Faith Crisis than we are about our response to it.  A poor response to faith crisis can cause spiritual havoc and immense emotional damage. From our LDS cousins (who …

276: The NakedPastor: David Hayward

David Hayward is popularly known by his cartoons, his blogs and his books as The NakedPastor. He started his ministry typically enough as a seminarian, an ordained minister and a pastor. But when David began …

274: A Complex Spirituality: Fowler’s Stage Five: Sara Hughes-Zabawa

Sara Hughes-Zabawa and I discuss a spirituality that pays attention to both the church’s tendency to spiritually wound and spiritually enlivening. We discuss Fowler’s Stage Five in the context of spiritual practice and suggest those …

272: A Māori Reflection on LDS Church Culture and Discipline: Mahuika, Rangiwai, Hikairo

Without any effort to contextualize or indigenize the LDS Church in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Māori are often asked to accept ways of being that get imported from Utah.  This ‘Utah’ worldview is  presented to LDS Māori …

266a: Fowlers Stages of Faith: Developing a Healthy Individuative-Reflective Faith: Sara Hughes-Zabawa

Sara Hughes-Zabawa returns to discuss one of the most emotionally and spiritually challenging stages in Fowler’s Stages of Faith;  the development of an Individuative-Reflective Faith.   In high demand or fundamentalist faith traditions Stage Four is poorly understood and often …

259: The Feasibility of Staying: Tom Mikota

Tom Mikota has designed special effects on such blockbuster movies as Avatar, King Kong, Tintin etc.  But it wasn’t until he was shoulder tapped to work on the First Vision Theater on Temple Square that …

253: Revisiting Fowler’s Stages of Faith: Stage Three – A Synthetic-Conventional Faith: Sara Hughes-Zabawa

Sara Hughes-Zabawa rejoins me to discuss Fowler’s Stages of Faith:  The Synthetic-Conventional Stage. Stage Three is usually entered into during adolescence.   It’s that stage in which we imagine that our views represent an accurate and …

250: Living Honestly with Mormonism’s Past and Present: Brian Whitney

Brian and Gina discuss the complexity of the experience of Mormonism when confronted with eyes wide open to both its past, its present and its changing contexts.   Brians’ Website:  Mormonism in Context  

243: Listening For God: Prof. Nancy Ross

“There’s no point at which we can say, ‘I’ve got it.’   Always and forever, mystery gets you.  Our searching for God is a search for symbols, analogies and metaphors.  All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe.  That’s the best human language can achieve.

We must, absolutely must, maintain a fundamental humility before the great mystery.  If we do not, religion always worships itself and its formulations, and never God.”

So says Fr. Richard Rohr, and thus contemplates art historian and medievalist Professor Nancy Ross.  Nancy reflects on the place of art as an approximation of the Christian faith in the West.  She offers a heartfelt reflection on how art has shaped her own understandings of the divine and her faith development.

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241: Revisiting Fowler’s Stages from 0-6: Stage 2: Myths and Symbols: Sara Hughes-Zabawa

Sara Hughes-Zabawa returns to discuss Fowler’s Stage Two: The Mythic Literal stage. We discuss the power of story and mythology as important tools of meaning meaning-making.  Rather than see them as inducements into lives of …