From Structuralism to Eternity? Re-Imagining the Psychology of Religious Development After the Cognitive-Developmental Paradigm
Structuralist approaches to the psychology of religious development, particularly those worked out by Fowler (1981, 1987, 1991, 1996), Oser (1990, 1991, 1996a, 1996b), and other neo-Piagetians, have held that religious development proceeds in a uniform way across a series of universal, hierarchical,...
| Published in: | The international journal for the psychology of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
2001
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| In: |
The international journal for the psychology of religion
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | Structuralist approaches to the psychology of religious development, particularly those worked out by Fowler (1981, 1987, 1991, 1996), Oser (1990, 1991, 1996a, 1996b), and other neo-Piagetians, have held that religious development proceeds in a uniform way across a series of universal, hierarchical, and irreversible stages. It follows a course that moves the human being from heteronomy to autonomy, in a process of ongoing meaning-making centered in the cognitive structures of individuals disposed, as philosophers, to an ongoing concern with questions of ultimate meaning, the nature of the sacred, and relationships between human and divine activity. These same authors have held that the process of religious development is intimately tied up with the process of moral development, which they conceive in terms drawn from the constructs of Kohlberg (1963, 1969, 1981, 1984) and his associates. In this article I explore some of the weaknesses of the constructivist arguments, which form the groundwork for these theoretical positions, demonstrate how contemporary research challenges the fundamental assumptions of the cognitive-developmental paradigm, and argue for a different vision of religious development rooted not in efforts to apprehend deep structural features of individual cognitive functioning, but in the networks of speech and narrative that shape human communication and conceptions of the world. |
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| ISSN: | 1532-7582 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1207/S15327582IJPR1103_04 |