Homework help > What is the relationship between faith and belief ... > Published by: CPA Guru 4 years ago
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Subject: Religion/Theology
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What is the relationship between faith and belief and faith and theology? Summarize Fowler’s stages of faith. Do you personally find yourself identifying with any of these stages? If not, why? If so, which one/s? ...[Show More]

4 years ago


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Faith and belief are connected to each other, but they have different meanings. Belief is a judgment or opinion in which an individual is completely persuaded. They are then the things people are convinced of. In other words, we can say that faith is a concept or idea people gather by getting experience and information. As a result, beliefs can change from time to time as people gain more experience and knowledge regarding certain things. On the other hand, faith comprises of beliefs and requires action in order to move someone in order to make her do or say something. For instance, in Mathew 17:20, Jesus tells his disciples "Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." Here, it means that if his disciples believed in the reality with self-confidence, they exercised faith. Their belief would help them see the miraculous things that would happen. Therefore, belief comes first then followed by faith. With belief people get to have faith in God. Also, faith and theology relate with each other. Faith is a way people perceive reality while theology can be expressed as faith that is brought close to an individual's self-consciousness. However, faith is not considered to be theology, but neither does faith exist independently or apart from theology. In this case, theology is put into practice at the instant when an individual's faith is logically conscious of that confidence. For this reason, one first acquires faith then it is followed by theology. Through theology, a person can express all kinds of judgment regarding the certainty of God because the faith he possesses makes him or her believe in the Bible. James Fowler identified seven stages of faith. Infancy and Undifferentiated faith is the first stage where he claims that the strength of autonomy, courage, trust, and hope that one develops in this stage underlies all that happens later in the development of faith. Intuitive-projective faith is the second stage where faith is acquired through images, stories, actions, and feelings from adults. In this phase, the imagination of the child plays a significant role in their development of faith. The third stage is mythic-literal where the stories of faith appear to be concrete, literal and logical. A person is able to differentiate between what is real and creating believe. The fourth stage is synthetic conventional where faith develops at puberty since self-identity and personality have emerged. Here, churches can also facilitate the development of faith via engagement with different cultures, mission trips, and interfaith conversations. Individuative-reflective is the fifth stage which starts in adulthood when a person is already exposed to diverse perspectives and cultures. It is a period of instability since unexamined values and beliefs are put into interrogation and linked to alternate value systems. This phase emphasizes on self-fulfillment, independence, and individuality. Conjunctive faith is the sixth stage. At this point, a person is willing to allow the reality to take its place regardless of the influence of the word on the person's self-esteem. Universalizing faith is the last stage where the perceptions and actions of people regularly counter run to the neighboring culture. They regard other individuals as part of the entire family. They hence serve other people selflessly. I personally identify myself with the mythic-literal, synthetic-conventional and individuative-reflective stages of faith. In mythic-literal stage, I was self-centered and regularly found myself in trouble because of the unprincipled way of living. In synthetic-conventional stage, I found myself relying on the church to get stability. I was extremely attached to it, and when people tried to criticize my religion, I got upset. Lastly, the in individuative-reflective stage I realized that I asked myself many things. I stopped going to church and felt comfortable about it.

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