Third UU Principle:
"What Do We Mean by Spiritual and Philosophical Growth?"

Margo McKenna - Nov. 4, 2001

This afternoon I will be continuing the series on the 7 Principles of Unitarian Universalism.  We pick up with our 3rd principle, which states: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.   The first part of this principle states the acceptance of one another.  This part of the 3rd principle is, I believe, a continuation of the first 2 principles, which call for honoring the worth and dignity of every person, and to practice justice, equity and compassion in our human relations.  (I have set out copies of the first two sermons on the back table for your reference, if you would like to look at the first 2 principles).  As we look at the first half of this 3rd principle, it appears to be the basis for the second half; it make sense that only when we are willing to accept one another into this community, with all our idiosyncrasies, will we be able to encourage one another in spiritual growth.

I have decided since choosing the title of my sermon to limit myself to the word spiritual rather than both spiritual and philosophical.  I realize my discomfort with the word spiritual comes from its narrow definition within my conservative Christian past.  Rather, I am going to redefine, and then use in the sermon this afternoon, the term "spirituality" in a manner that honors my experience and understanding.  I would like to borrow Spinoza's definition: "spirituality is nothing more than the desire of human beings to find meaning in living and in dying". 

As I mentioned earlier, I believe the first part of our 3rd principle points to the first needed ingredient of a spiritually growing congregation; that is, the ability to accept one another.  This means that we come together with different perspectives on God, or no god; we come together with different sexual orientations; we come together with different beliefs about the role of a minister and the role of the congregation; we come together with different gifts - some of us sing, some of us teach, some of us provide aesthetics, some of us are gifted in detail and others in dreaming; we come together with different ways of interacting in the world, some are shy and some are outgoing, some are right-brained and some are left-brained, some are moved by music and others by logic;  yet, we come together because we affirm diversity and the right to an individual search for truth and meaning.  It is with these differences that we affirm to accept one another in our 3rd principle.  It is with the awareness of these differences that we need to create space as we worship together.  It is for these differences we need to provide an environment of acceptance, patience, and sometimes, just a little thicker skin, with one another.

The second part of our 3rd principle, encouraging spiritual growth, is a sermon series in and of itself.  My guess is that there are as many definitions of "spiritual growth" as there are persons sitting here.  This is a limitless topic, so I am going to take only one piece of this concept and try to offer a basic understanding of the stages and patterns of spiritual growth, both for individuals and congregations.

Most of us sitting here this afternoon are here because we seek a community out of which to live our personal beliefs.  We are sitting here because we want more than a social club, or work camaraderie, or political planning.  Most of us are here because we are hungry for spiritual growth.  We desire to be good people, with a strong moral and ethical compass, and we seek these things in an accepting and safe community.  We come together because we are on a quest in which we seek to understand the world, we seek to understand ourselves, and we seek to discover not only the meaning of the world, but our place and our meaning in that world.

To assist in this understanding, I would like to refer to the work of Dr. James Fowler's.  His study on the "stages of spiritual maturation," also referred to as the "stages of faith," provide a framework, this afternoon, for our look at spiritual growth. 

For those of us from backgrounds in which faith was narrowly defined, I would like to start by clarifying Fowler's use of the word "faith."  His definition was simply "the way you make sense of the world."  He came to his theory of faith, and the accompanying transition stages, after listening to hundreds of individuals sharing their life's stories and quest for meaning, while working as a therapist. Fowler believed he had found a consistent pattern of six major faith stages that occur in an invariant order.  Though he observed that most people only complete stage 3 and sometimes stage 4 in their lifetime, there were individuals and even religious communities that moved into stage 5 or 6, showing strong emotional and spiritual health.  He constantly pointed out that these stages are NOT the measurement with which to look at other people of faith, rather they are simply different lenses through which we view the world as we journey through life.

The first faith stage is: Magical World View.  This is often the stage of children, ages 2 - 6, who view the world through the lens of imagination and intuition, and who remain unrestrained by logic.  This is a magical world in which anything is possible, and all needs and wants are met by a parent or other powerful caregiver. 

This first stage is the one that some people stay in for the duration of their lives.  It is the desired spiritual destination of many.  The sense of being taken care of by a powerful parent or god-figure; believing there are no limits to what can be achieved through faith in this "god" figure; and miracles are theirs for the asking.  Most people who have gotten to the place in their spiritual quest to be attending a UU congregation are not in stage 1.  However, this is the spiritual journey of many, and it is an essential stage to go through before we can progress to the next stage of spiritual growth.  Thus, we need to be patient, supportive, and encouraging to the person, or people, in our lives, who are just starting their spiritual journey and look at the religious world through the eyes of a child and see only "magic."

The second faith stage is: The Concrete Religious Family.  In this stage, often represented by children ages 6 - 12, there is a concrete, literal, narrative worldview.  This is when children begin to identify with a faith community, which may be religiously, politically, or culturally defined.  They begin to locate themselves in the larger story of life's meaning, and they need a story to tell them who they are.  This age is marked by rigidity about the story of their life, about who they are in terms of their defined family.

This stage is another place in which many people choose to spend the tenure of their spiritual quest.  The spiritual journey is defined by a literal, narrative view of who is family and who is not.  There is a strong need of ritual in order to provide meaning and stability, and there is a strong need to have answers provided for difficult questions.  At this stage of faith, a person becomes defensive when challenged about the ritual, the story, or the meaning of their spiritual journey.  Any doubt, either by others or themselves, can cause terrible emotional and spiritual distress.  Once again, this is a necessary stage of spiritual maturation and should be honored as such.  Though UUism does not usually appeal to individuals in the second stage, there are those who wander into this family, and need to be nurtured through this stage in order to be prepared for the next.  Most importantly, we need to remember that pushing only causes someone to dig in deeper, or to move away from any spiritual development altogether, due to the emotional distress caused by a rigid worldview.

The third stage of faith is: The Faith Community.  This stage is parallel to the age of puberty, otherwise known as the teen years.  In this worldview, the lens is that of the peer community.  At this age, much of the sense of self comes from those of the same age, the same interests, the same school, or the same activities.  This stage of life, though often reactive, forms the next generation in ways that will always be different than the generation before.  In spite of this reaction, however, teens will take the values and ways of thinking established during these years and become quite loyal, dependent, and committed to maintaining these values for the rest of their lives.  This is an inherently homeostatic stage of life, which makes the next stage of life a difficult transition.  We all know the energy it takes to deal with a person who remains a teen for life. 

This third stage of Fowler's model of spiritual maturation is the stage in which the largest number of individuals, the world over, tends to concentrate.  It is during the "teen" years of our spiritual journey that most people believe they are defining their own journey.  What they do not realize is that they may have moved away from their parents, their church, or any other authoritative figure, but they have caught the values of their peers, and once defined, will remain intensely loyal, dependent, and committed to the particular practices and beliefs established during this time of their lives.  People in this stage may have doubts or questions, but will push them aside because the cost of facing the doubts may be too high.

We as UU's do appeal to a large number of people in stage 3.  In particular, those who have reacted against their parents' faith tradition and would like a community that stands in opposition to their history, or on the other end of the spectrum, those who have had no faith tradition in the past and want to have a group of peers in which to find their spiritual home. This stage is marked by discomfort with change in the surrounding environment, the need to act in a manner that will get a reaction, and the need to experiment with many different thoughts and ideas for oneself.  This also is a normal step in the spiritual journey, and we should not be afraid to admit if it is our faith stage.  And, as in other stages of spiritual growth, we need to affirm those in this stage, and provide a place that will nurture in order to move toward the next stage.

The fourth faith stage is: The Rational Construct.  In this stage, parallel to adulthood, one develops the ability to step back from one's own heritage and see oneself in terms of all humanity.  The individuals and communities that make this transition do so because of the recognition that traditional answers stop making sense.  There is a willingness to move out of peer and societal expectations, as well as holding previous beliefs to a radical accounting.  This stage of life is marked by the ability to throw out parts of our beliefs that don't make sense, or even abandon long-held beliefs entirely.  Life must make sense, and it is out of a need for beliefs to be "reasoned" that people move into this faith stage.

This appears to be the stage in which the largest number of Unitarian Universalists would fall.  Most have long ago left the magical, the literalist, and even the reactive faith stages of earlier years.  The majority of UU's would call themselves rational, believing that one's religion must, above all, make sense.  Fowler refers to this as a mature faith, yet he notes that this stage of spiritual growth is limited by the need of humans to be certain about life, and he noted a frequent intolerance of those in other stages of life or spiritual maturation. 

The challenge for us in this community is to once again recognize that this is a normal stage of development through which we all must go if we hope to continue our journey of spiritual growth. We just need to be aware that this is not the most mature faith stage available to us, and we do not need to stay there.  In fact, I believe that the UU tradition calls us to continued growth and development, mentally, morally, socially, and spiritually. 

The fifth faith stage is: Recognition of the Numinous Universe.  This is the stage recognized as the age of wisdom, often associated with "old age."  The symbols of all cultures, through most of history, have honored this time of life.  The knowledge that death is approaching has

been seen as giving the elderly an ability to recognize the limits of rational thought, and move back to looking at life through the lens of imagination.  There is frequently the openness to look at life through many different lenses at once, recognizing the paradox of faith and doubt, reason and mystery, joy and pain, living and dying.  This is a stage of life we seldom honor in America as we do not value our elders as do many other cultures.  Though this stage is not always defined by age - there were those who Fowler worked with who reached this level of spiritual development at much earlier life stages - the usual route is to mature to this level after we have passed the mid-life stage.

Though Fowler found that few people reach this stage of spiritual development, there are those who do. They are people who have taken authority into themselves and who are now able to give back to the sacred symbols of story, tradition, and liturgy, the numinous mystery and magic of childhood.  There may, or may not, be a belief in God, but this stage of faith is marked by openness to other religious traditions and practices.  This faith stage is marked by the ability to affirm and nurture those in other faith stages; and the knowledge that having answers is not an explanation to the meaning of life.  People in this stage of maturation recognize there are few things in the universe that are certain, and it is the run up against the limits of rational thought which brings peace with uncertainty. 

The sixth and final faith stage observed by Fowler is: Selfless Service.  This stage of spiritual maturation is rare.  It is not service out of guilt, or a desire to please God or impress others, rather it seems to come when individuals or communities deeply identify with all of humanity.  There is the recognition that every person is more whole, when all of humanity is made whole.  A person such as this will risk all to assist this task of making our world whole.  Examples of persons in this faith stage are Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa, and probably many others less known.  Though this faith stage is rare, it is marked by the lack of knowledge that a one is at this stage, and a desire to transform the world without recognition for having done so.

So, having taken one piece of the topic "spiritual growth," we can see the difficulties we face here at Chalice, and certainly in the larger religious community, when we attempt to provide an environment for spiritual growth.  We are all at different faith stages, above and beyond all the other differences we bring when we come here to worship on Sundays.  So, how are we supposed to coexist in the same congregation?  To those at any given stage, the next stage of faith looks like a loss of spirituality and the previous stage may look immature.  To people in stage 3, stage 4 sounds like everything becomes relative, there are no foundational beliefs; and to people in stage 4, people in stage 3 look like unthinking traditionalists; and to people in stage 3 or 4, people in stage 5 look like mystical mushes.  When we engage in judging one another's spiritual development, or baiting those we believe to be in "lower" spiritual stages, we fail to provide an environment conducive to spiritual growth.

Knowing the stages of faith, recognizing the need to progress through them, and providing a community in which to move through these stages safely is the greatest religious need in our country right now.  I believe we can provide such a community here at Chalice.  I believe UUism has the foundation in our principles that allows us to be diverse in all areas of congregational life, including our differing stages of spiritual growth. 

May we be the community in which genuine spiritual growth may occur.