While faith can help us to develop and deepen our sense of spirituality, it may also hinder us from finding our own, personal beliefs and spirituality. At its worst, it may also lead to conflicts between people of differing faiths. Therefore, understanding how faith develops is of vital importance at this time when there are major conflicts between peoples of differing faiths in various geographic, cultural and religious communities – conflicts that threaten the continuation and perhaps even the survival of life as we know it on this planet.

Faith is based in logical truths and faith is based in the heart – known directly rather than deduced through reason. Our personal and collective challenge is to seek the healing balance between the two ways of experiencing an d practicing our faith.

Numerous components of can be identified within the broad contexts of faith:

1. Accepting what we are told
2. Logical reasoning
3. Intuitive, experiential knowing

1. Basic faith (Fowler: “Intuitive-Projective Faith“)
2. Mythic-Literal Faith
3. Faith based on popular idols (Fowler: “Synthetic-Conventional Faith”)
4. Faith by personal choice (Fowler: “Individuative-Reflective Faith”)
5. Faith through inner knowing (Fowler: “Conjunctive Faith”)
6. Faith anchored in transcendent awareness (Fowler: Universalizing Faith)

Each approach and stage has its advantages and drawbacks. None can be proven as valid beyond question without prior assumptions or. Each of these five stages can be experienced through any or all of the three broad approaches to experiencing faith. Each will be colored by our personality styles.

Taking advantage of on-line facilities, for our lay readers we omit technical details and link explanations for key words that may not be familiar, and for our caregiver professional readers we supplement basic materials with references and links to more detailed discussions. Both research and clinical references will be featured, including medical, psychological and spiritual studies.