1. North of England Institute for Christian Education
Questions of Faith
Jeff Astley

2. 1. The Meanings of ‘Faith’
‘the Faith’
OBJECTIVE FAITH Body of doctrine The Tradition product ◊ content
the faith which is believed fides quae
‘our faith’
SUBJECTIVE FAITH personal faith ‘faithing’ process ◊ personal acceptance/understanding
the faith by which it is believed fides qua

3. 2. ‘our faith’ believing trusting, valuing doing context dialogue
development

4. James Fowler’s ‘human faith’
Form
HOW/WAY
Content
WHAT
described under
7 Aspects
developing in
6 Stages
Centres of Value
Images and Realities of Power
Master Stories
‘Ultimate Environment’

6. Fowler’s faith stages

7. Stage 0: Primal Faith
up to age four
‘Nursed Faith’
‘Foundation Faith’

8. Stage 1: Intuitive-Projective Faith
ages 4 to 7/8
‘Chaotic Faith’
‘Unordered Faith’
‘Impressionistic Faith’
‘Imaginative Faith’

9. Stage 2: Mythic-Literal Faith
ages 6/7 to 11/12 and beyond
‘Ordering Faith’
‘Narrative Faith’

10. Stage 3: Synthetic-Conventional Faith
ages 11/12 onwards
or 17/18 onwards
'Conforming Faith'

11. Stage 4: Individuative-Reflective Faith
from 17/18 or from mid-life
'Choosing Faith'
'Either/Or Faith’

12. Stage 5: Conjunctive Faith
rare before 30
‘Balanced Faith’
‘Both/And Faith’
‘Inclusive Faith’

13. James W Fowler

14. John H Westerhoff III

15. Heinz Streib

16. 3. ‘the Faith’
beliefs, doctrines symbols, stories spirituality, values practices
language: the ‘grammar’ of Christianity
skills: religious literacy spiritual vision imagination

17. 4. ‘Passing on’
Faith transmission +
Faith translation

18. ‘ Faith community/Enculturation’
Faith transmission
‘ Faith community/Enculturation’
Forming congregation in Christian faith and life
e.g. in worship
Faith Community
Goals: to build the congregation into a community of mission and ministry, through which people can encounter the faith and learn its life-style
View of Teacher: as a ‘priest’ for the community
View of Learner: Individually, as a person struggling to identify with the Christian community; communally, as a congregation seeking to be faithful
Content:
Christian community’s faith and life-style
Settings for Learning:
community of faith/worship, set within the wider community
Key Ideas: formation/nurture; enculturation/ socialisation; tradition (‘faith transmission’)
Westerhoff’s earlier accounts, however, allow that these critical and prophetic dimensions of Christian education may be considered as a part of a broader view of Christian formation, because the culture in which Christians are formed includes the radical catalyst of the Christian gospel, which itself critiques and may overturn some of the inherited understandings and practices of Christianity as well as many of those espoused by ‘the world’.[i] Transformation then becomes part of formation, and it may be more readily recognised that catechesis does not result - as people often assume - merely in a conserving and therefore conservative Christianity, incapable of changing either the world or the church.
‘The crucial activity here is not so much comprehension as identification. Through ritual, the community celebrates and renews its corporate identity.’ (Charles Foster)

19. Faith transmission
‘a process which aims to aid persons to internalize and adopt the community’s faith as their own and to apply that faith to life in the world.’
(John Westerhoff)
‘The crucial activity here is not so much comprehension as identification.’ (Charles Foster)

20. hidden curriculum
‘So much of our most significant learning is unconscious We learn all the time. My conviction is that this hidden curriculum, this unconscious learning, is so important we cannot afford to let it remain unconscious.’ (John Westerhoff)

24. Faith translation ‘Interpretation’
Promoting dialogue between Christian tradition and human experience
e.g. with individuals or small groups reflecting on their own stories
Interpretation
Goals: to connect Christian perspectives and practices to contemporary experiences
View of Teacher: as a guide
View of Learner: as a person seeking to interpret Christianity and experience
Content: Christian story (tradition) and present experience
Settings for Learning: person’s total life
Key Ideas: hermeneutics; dialogue; ‘faith translation’

25. Faith translation
‘To interpret means precisely to use one’s own preconceptions so that the meaning of the text can really be made to speak for us.’ (Hans-Georg Gadamer)
Ask: ‘What does the community’s Story mean for (affirm, call in question, invite beyond) our stories, and how do our stories respond to (affirm, recognize limits of, push beyond) the community Story?’
(Thomas Groome)
This results in a ‘circle of understanding’, a ‘hermeneutical circle’ or spiral in which every understanding is grounded in our fore-understanding which is itself changed in this ‘true conversation’ with the text to become the fore-understanding of a subsequent encounter with tradition.
In this interaction we are challenged, criticised and changed by the other, but not absorbed by it.
What emerges from the fusion of our horizon with that of the text is something that is contained in neither, but is ‘a new creation of understanding’.

26. 5 More Questions of Faith
questioning and questing
failing and hoping
ignorance and mystery
education and schooling
formation and criticism