Understanding Faith Formation: Theological, Congregational, and Global Dimensions

Abstract

In Understanding Faith Formation, North American evangelical theologians and educators Mark A Maddix, Jonathan H Kim and James Riley Estep seek to articulate an integrated and holistic approach to faith formation. Through this work they aim to provoke conversation about matters of faith and faith formation and help readers grow and mature in their faith. The authors encourage readers to recognize faith as being expressed and lived out in particular contexts. Ideally such awareness provokes the re-examination of presuppositions about one’s faith and the recognition that ‘people from other cultures may mature in their faith in different ways’ (p. x). This book is divided into three parts. Part 1 focuses on theological dimensions of faith formation and acknowledges biblical, traditional and theoretical diversity. Intriguingly, the authors identify a study of faith in the First Testament as revealing more about God than about the faith of the people. They acknowledge personal and corporate dimensions of faith as expressed in diverse church traditions.Maddix,Kim andEstep revisit James Fowler’smodel of faith formation and present a model of faith formation comprised of four stages: converging faith, consolidating faith, conforming faith and contagious faith. The authors describe evangelical Christians as moving through these stages in a ‘non-mechanical fashion’ (p. 45). As noted, this model, based on qualitative research with 429 evangelical Christians aged 18 to 66, is ‘in an incipient stage’ and requires further development along with validation through replicating the study with ‘a different Christian population’ (p. 46). However, there is no indication of what subset/s of the US evangelical Christian population these initial participants have been drawn from, nor of other characteristics of participants. The outcome of the final stage of contagious faith is presented as selfless service. This stage would benefit from further description and exploration, including acknowledgement of terminology challenges, given that the language of self-sacrifice has been misused to the detriment of marginalized populations. Part 2 acknowledges congregational dimensions of faith formation. The authors identify biblical illiteracy, Moral Therapeutic Deism and the rejection of religious faith among the nones (those who self-identify as having no religious affiliation, International Journal of Christianity & Education