Wednesday, March 25, 2020

12. The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith


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This is my second read-through of this book having read it in November of 2018. (You can find my review of from that time HERE.) I gave it three stars on Goodreads at that time, but I am giving it four stars this time. I liked it better the second time around. Part of the reason is that last time I read the digital edition that was not a Kindle but a facsimile of the original book which made it really difficult to navigate. 

I have also worked with so many more directees at different stages in their journey since reading it last time, and I think the questions at each stage will be really helpful for me in helping my directees along on their journey. 

Also, between reading this the first time and now, I have read Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle and a Ph.D. thesis of a Bethel University student who compares The Critical Journey to the mansions in the Interior Castle and to Clinton's Leadership Emergence Theory/The Making of a Leader which I read years ago and found so helpful in my journey with Jesus.  So it fascinated me to read with that new lens. You can find the Ph.D. thesis HERE. It is really good!

We are revisiting it for the last module of our Spiritual Direction Training:
Module 5 is about recognizing and working with directees in various stages of faith. The Critical Journey...is listed here in order to concentrate on stages 3, 4, 5 and “The Wall” (where most directees are located). Consequently, those particular chapters are the focus. We want to explore in greater detail what it looks like to accompany directees well in each of these stages. 
You might be curious about what those stages of faith are. Here is the diagram:

Image result for The Critical Journey Stages in the life of faith diagram


I do like the combination of all three books and the Ph.D. Thesis and will use all the things I learned when working with directees. 

I still think the last few chapters should be edited and integrated into the chapters of the stages because they repeated quite a bit of the same information. 

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