Psychology of Faith Development

Course Description

An exploration of religious faith development across the life span.  Key authors will be the focus, for example, James Fowler, Fritz Oser, Anna-Maria Rizzuto, and their contemporaries.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, students will have acquired the following levels of knowledge:

•  gained increased familiarity with faith development theories and their application across the life span
• increased their awareness of the influence of social demographic variables on development
• increased their skill in the application of critical tools and methods
• had an opportunity for detailed exploration of a theory

This outcome will be achieved through these course elements:

• first part of course by discussing the more significant ways of conceptualizing human development in psychology and how they have influenced contemporary theories about religious faith and spiritual development
• second part of course by reviewing various contextual factors and intra-psychic processes at work across the life span and their implication and influence in faith and spirituality, and by exploring the psychological issues involved in religious faith and spiritual development
• weekly papers
• final paper

Course Schedule

A detailed course schedule is available for download.