4. religious and spiritual development

4 perspectives on religious development

• Piaget

• Kohlberg

• Fowler

• cognitive science (Barrett)

the classical view on religious development

as children’s thinking becomes more sophisticated, so does their religion

• cognitive dev drives religious dev

• young children understand religion differently than adolescents

• mature religious thought depends on abstract reasoning

Piaget’s view

• children actively construct knowledge thru experience

• thinking changes qualitatively AND quantitatively w age

• children build increasingly sophisticated schemas of the world

• religious concepts develop alongside these broader cognitive changes

so he’s focused on how children THINK, not just what they believe

religious implications of each of Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive dev

sensorimotor: no symbolic religious thought

preop: concrete imgs of God, heaven, miracles

concrete operational: better grasp of religious stories and rules

formal operational: theology, symbolism, metaphor, existential questions

some examples of ways Piaget would describe childhood religion

young children often…

• think concretely rather than abstractly

• interpret religious stories literally

• imagine God in human-like ways (anthropomorphism)

• struggle w symbolism and metaphor

• focus on visible outcomes over invisible principles

4 limitations of Piaget

• underestimated children’s abilities

• relied heavily on small observational samples

• underestimated social and cultural influences

• portrayed dev as more stage-like than it actually is

Kohlberg’s theory of moral dev and thoughts on religion depending on each stage

preconventional: “i should obey god so i don’t get punished”

conventional: “i follow my religion because it’s what good ppl do”

postconventional: “my faith helps me pursue justice and compassion, even when it’s hard”

so Kohlberg focused on why ppl make moral choices, not just what they believe

3+4: strengths and critiques of Kohlberg

strengths

• connected moral dev to cognitive growth

• inspired decades of dev research

• emphasized reasoning rather than behavior

limitations:

• focused on justice more than care or compassion

• based largely on Western samples

• reasoning doesn’t always predict behavior

• emotions and intuitions often shape judgments

Fowler

focused on the development of FAITH, not simply religious belief

• can be developed whether you’re religious or not

faith

it’s how ppl

• construct meaning

• understand ultimate concerns

• relate to the sacred

• organize their worldview

Fowler’s 6 stages of faith

• intuitive-projective: imagination, fantasy, vivid religious imgs (early childhood)

• mythic-literal: religious stories understood literally (school age)

• synthetic-conventional: beliefs shaped by family and peers (adolescence)

• individuative-reflective: critical examination of beliefs (young adulthood)

• conjunctive: openness to complexity and paradox (midlife)

• universalizing: compassion and commitment to universal values (later (rarer))

Barrett’s “born believers“ theory

children aren’t born w a theology; ordinary cognitive tendencies may make some religious ideas easier to acquire

4 cognitive tendencies of Barrett’s theory + everyday example → religious example

• agency detection: “something moved” → gods, spirits, angels

• teleological thinking: “trees are for climbing” → nature has a purpose

• theory of mind: “mom knows i’m sad” → god knows my thoughts

• essentialism: “tigers are naturally fierce” → souls or spiritual essences endure

comparing the 4 theories (what develops/main question? main contribution and also biggest limitation)

Piaget

• what develops? thinking

• main contribution: cognitive foundations

• biggest limitation: underestimates early competence

Kohlberg

• what develops? moral reasoning

• main contribution: explains moral judgment

• biggest limitation: underestimates emotion and culture

Fowler

• what develops? faith

• main contribution: explains meaning-making

• biggest limitation: limited empirical support

Barrett

• main question: why is religion so intuitive?

• main contribution: cognitive predispositions

• biggest limitation: may underemphasize culture

why does culture matter?

similar cognitive capacities can support very different ideas — heaven, reincarnation, ancestors, or naturalistic accounts of death — depending on the culture. so what we believe in can be defined by culture despite the cognitive capacities which go behind it being similar universally

interactionist conclusion

cognition, culture, relationships, and experience interact over time