The Critical Journey: Stages in the life of faith

Book Review (Janet Hagberg & Robert Guelich)

I picked this book up after hearing someone mention it mostly in passing on a podcast, and it seemed much more interesting than the book that they had written. It's an older book, but it's been through a couple of revisions, and this is a second edition. Essentially what this book does is try to chart 'stages' that map to a somewhat generic 'spiritual journey' that many people experience over the course of their lives. The two authors, one now deceased, are Christians and the general framework is Christian, but the book is a bit more generic than that, and its framework is not theological per se. It is much more a kind of mesh of spiritual direction and psychology.

The overall model of 6 stages isn't meant to mean that higher stages are 'better', but as the authors explain, it's more like stages of life: we go through infancy, adolescence, maturity, senescence. Are any of these better? Not really, they just describe where you're at. So too, we shouldn't necessarily think that the goal in life is to "get to stage 6". it's not a level of higher spirituality.

What are the six stages? Let me briefly outline the model.

Stage 1: Recognition of God

The initial stage at which you become aware of something greater than yourself, typically either through awe or need, and that there is greater meaning in life. You become aware of God and believe in him.

Stage 2: Life of Discipleship

We get meaning primarily from belonging, and a sense of rightness and security from our beliefs and our group. We are spending time learning about God and his ways.

Stage 3: Productive Life

We become involved in leading or serving in our faith community, using our gifts to serve, and being productive in our spiritual life.

I think it is fair to say that lots of people spend a lot of their faith-life in stages 2-3, and that's okay. Generally, moving from 2 to 3 is healthy and good, and there are times that you move back stages (which the authors talk about), and that's all fine and well too. Spending much of your life learning in a faith-community, and serving in one, is totally normal and can be incredibly spiritually vital.

Stage 4: Journey Inward

This stage involves a real turn inwards, and is often occasioned by crisis, either in life or faith. It may involve doubting, wrestling with God, a search for integrity before him, for God and not just answers. It may often involve apparent abandonment of faith even.

I can think of a couple of times in my life where things have really fallen apart, and those times always lead to growth. To paraphrase my beloved Keller, he often talks about how people who have never suffered, have no depth; suffering makes us better and greater people.¹ In that sense, a crisis of some kind is necessary for stage 4. No diamonds without pressure kind of thing.

Without claiming that I have somehow 'made it' and 'broken through to new depths of spiritual enlightenment' or anything, I think I can honestly say that in reflecting on the past, I can see times of crisis that led not so much to a crisis of faith, but a deeper wrestling with God and his ways, a renewal of spiritual life within me, a pursuit of God and God alone, and growth in several areas that has made me a person with a deeper spiritual life.

Stage 5: Journey Outward

Is when you emerge on the other side of the journey inward, with a renewed sense of God's acceptance, your place in the world, calling, and inner poise. It's like stage 3, but with far less striving, and a deeper love for others. I think you can think of stage 5 as when the deep inner work of stage 4 finds its outlet in a return to the world for the sake of others.

Stage 6: Life of Love

Is not 'perfection', but it is this evolution from stage 5, characterised by greater and greater self-forgetting, awareness of God in all of life, obedience, detachment for worldly concerns, and compassion for all. I think this is what we think of when we think of those genuine holy and wise people seemingly filled with boundless grace towards others.

Photo by Sam Mgrdichian on Unsplash

The writers talk later in the book about how the church generally works best with people in stages 1-3. It makes me think about monastic communities, intentional communities, etc., where people are really coming together not so much, I would say, out of a desire to seek a more peak Christian experience, but a deeper and more profound commitment to Christian life together. I think that needs a bunch of caveats that I'm not interested in writing out here. Put simply, the desire to go 'deeper' means seeking out others, whether people or books (!) to help you do that.

It's also worth saying, I suppose, that not only can/do people go back to earlier stages, but it's not linear and one-and-done. You can go through a stage 4 experience several times, and then experience a renewed aspect of stage 5, for instance.

The authors also talk a lot about 'the Wall', which sounds a lot like St. John of the Cross's 'dark night of the soul', and similar. It's a time of coming to grips with our will face-to-face with God's will. Of confronting God and ourselves, and being brought to a transformation that embraces, forgives, and heals all that we are.

What was the point of reading this book, and what's the upshot? I think the reason I wanted to read this book was to self-reflect on spiritual growth in my own life, but also to think about the broader course of development in faith in people's lives in general. And to think for myself, "okay, here are things that describe where I've been and where I'm at, and to think about practices to help me keep going on this journey". I think the upshot is that this book provides a general but applicable model which has some substance to it, even if only at a descriptive level.

1. I feel like I need to add some kind of proviso or disclaimer for my love of Keller. I do think Keller is wrong sometimes. Especially when he tries to make a point from the Greek. He's most likely to be wrong when he makes a point from the Greek.