Stage Two: Mythic-Literal Faith

This article continues a series appearing in recent weeks on the development of faith.  It is based primarily on James Fowler's Stages of Faith.  As this is the fourth article in the series, interested readers who are coming in now are encouraged to check out articles from previous weeks, beginning with week one.

One other note:  I am  having technical difficulty posting on multiple Patch sites without the spam filter kicking in.  This forces me to post several times separately, which means different comment streams get created.  This is unfortunate, since I think we all benefit from hearing from everyone who comments.  The Patch IT team is working on this issue.

Stage 2:  Mythic Literal Faith: With Stage 2 level faith, we begin to encounter elements that are readily visible in our liturgy and our religious practices, as well as in some aspects of our other adult faith systems. To better understand the Mythic Literal faith system, it will be helpful to review some information on cognitive and moral development from Piaget and Kohlberg, respectively.

The stage of cognitive development that Fowler links to Stage 2 is called by Piaget the “concrete operational” stage.  He said it begins with children around the ages of 5 to 6, and they solidify and develop this type of thinking throughout the elementary school years.

The primary cognitive capacities being developed at this stage involve learning to separate fantasy from reality and this development usually begins occurring around age 6.  Whereas the preschool child’s thoughts are influenced by magical thinking, perception, and fantasy, the concrete operational child, on the other hand, is intensely involved in separating reality from fantasy and mastering the rules of the adult, mainstream world.  The games concrete operational children play move from the fantasy based, like variations on the “make believe,” to the more rule bound, such as board games.

It’s no accident that formal education begins at age 6, because that is when the child’s brain is developed to the point of being able to learn formal systems of logic like arithmetic, reading, and writing.  Learning and mastering these rules of logic and ways of understanding the outer world give the child a stability and anchoring in reality she didn’t previously have.  With this stability comes the ability to let go of one’s own perspective long enough to understand that others have other perspectives.  The child thus begins to lose the egocentrism of his earlier stage where he automatically assumed everyone saw things as he did.

The moral development that comes with this stage, according to Kohlberg in what he calls the “instrumental exchange” stage, is the notion of reciprocity.  Understanding others may think or feel differently does not make the child altruistic.  Rather, she understands that to pursue what she wants for herself she must be prepared to give something in return.  Conversely, not doing what one should results in not getting what one wants, or in punishment.  The moral world thus constructed is a concrete system of punishment and reward.  If you ask a child at this stage why he shouldn’t steal, the answer will be “because I might get in trouble,” as opposed to a higher level moral reasoning which would have a deeper appreciation for the wrong committed in stealing.

Notice how Fowler synthesizes these two cognitive and moral developmental phases into Stage 2/Mythic Literal faith, which is also concrete, linear and rule bound.  Because of its concreteness an individual at this stage of faith development would have great trouble conceptualizing God or a higher power as shapeless and formless.  Their God is often anthropomorphic: the old man in the sky with the long white beard.  Stage 2’s gift to our development is that it establishes there are right and wrong ways of behaving, and sets out that in general right action leads to good results while wrong action leads to bad results, that it “pays” to do the right thing.  One such example from the Bible can be found in Deuteronomy 11:13-11:17:

If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late.  You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil – I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle – and thus you shall eat your fill.  Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them.  For the Lord’s anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that the Lord is assigning to you.

The Stage 2 understanding of this passage would be literal.  God promises a neat moral calculus where the good prosper and the wicked suffer.  The Mythic Literal person would be unable to view it symbolically (this is more the province of Stage 4) or to hold it loosely – that most times this passage is true but sometimes (e.g. Job, the Holocaust) it isn’t.  Fowler’s earlier quote cited in a previous article, about how people’s faith needs to develop or risk anachronism, would be illustrated by someone who had a Mythic Literal faith, who did all the right things, and who still was beset by adversity.  If he couldn’t move to the next stage, he might either keep trying the same approach, but longer and harder (such praying more often) or throw over his faith in disappointment at the unfairness of God.

Another area where Stage 2 faith’s concreteness is evident is in the area of religious symbols.  It is easy for any of us to turn a symbol into an idol, talisman, or good luck charm.  For example, when we are acting from the Mythic Literal faith level we may think of a mezuzah as if it’s something that “protects the home,” or a crucifix worn around the neck as "good luck charm" rather than a symbolic reminder of the existence of God.

Fowler’s summary of the Mythic Literal stage includes the following:

Beliefs are appropriated with literal interpretations, as are moral rules and attitudes.  Symbols are taken as one-dimensional and literal in meaning….Those in Stage 2 compose a world based on reciprocal fairness and immanent justice based reciprocity.  The actors in their cosmic stories are anthropomorphic….The limitations of literalness and an excessive reliance upon reciprocity as a principle for constructing an ultimate environment can result in an overcontrolling, stilted perfectionism or “works righteousness” or in their opposite, an abasing sense of badness embraced because of mistreatment, neglect or the apparent disfavor of significant others.

Next week: Stage 3:  Synthetic Conventional Faith.

Do you have a question about your marriage or relationship? Is there a particular topic on relationships or individual psychological issues you would like addressed in this blog? Ask Josh in the comments below or email him at josh@joshgressel.com.

Josh Gressel, Ph.D., is a couples and individual therapist based in Pleasant Hill, CA. Visit his website at joshgressel.com.  He is currently accepting referrals.