Faith and Moral Development in Fundamentalist Communities:Lessons Learned in Five New Religious Movements Pubblico
Green, Andrea Doria (2008)
Abstract
"Faith and Moral Development in Fundamentalist Religious Communities: Lessons Learned from Five New Religious Movements" is, first, a work of practical theology. The practical theology employed in this study understands religious communities as carriers of practical reason, asking of each of them the normative and descriptive questions: Are these communities representing the ideals and norms of their respective traditions as carriers of religious knowledge? In what ways are these communities implementers of practical religious wisdom and what is it that this wisdom teaches?
Second, this study represents an effort to take seriously subcultures of fundamentalist New Religious Movements (fNRMs). It is a response to prevailing theories of moral and faith development as suggested by the cognitive structuralist tradition. Suspecting that cognitive structuralist based assessments, and thus, their theories, render fNRM adherents' faith and moral development in overly simplistic terms, this study proposes a qualitative method to analyze the sociological, historical, theological, and anthropological factors involved in the religious worlds created within fNRMs. This method, alongside traditional developmental assessments, elevates, for full view, the complexities of faith and moral development in fundamentalist communities. The studies of these five fNRMs moved in different directions, but systematically revealed different but complex factors, sophisticated styles and modes of integration in patterns of reasoning involved in the daily negotiations of living in faith communities, thinking through the contents of faith, and maintaining faith-based commitments. The results of this study point toward poststructuralism, with its theories of multiple subjectivities, to account for the complex patterns of reasoning required to negotiate multiple subjectivities in a complicated world. Perhaps poststructuralist theories of moral and faith development are needed to more accurately describe both of these processes in the context of postmodernity. Poststructuralism suggests that, rather than stages of development, individuals adopt constellations of patterns of reasoning that are locally and communally driven.
Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................... 1
Epistemology........................................................................................................... 9
Practical Theology................................................................................................. 24
Chapter 2: Models and Measures of Morality and Faith 38
Introduction........................................................................................................... 38
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)............................................................................ 39
Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview (MJI) ...................................................... 42
James R. Rest (1941-1999).................................................................................... 42
Rest's Early Research and Implications for Moral Judgment Research ................. 43
The Defining Issues Test (DIT) ........................................................................... 44
Neo-Kohlbergian Stage Development: The Minnesota Model ............................. 46
Schema Theory and the Minnesota Model .......................................................... 50
The Three Predominant Schemas and Their Epistemological Features .................. 53
From Stage to Schema ....................................................................................... 60
DIT Structure .................................................................................................... 62
DIT-2 Administration ......................................................................................... 63
DIT-2 Scoring ................................................................................................... 63
DIT-2 Validity ................................................................................................... 65
Fowler's Faith Development Theory....................................................................... 65
Fowler's Faith Development Interview (FDI) ...................................................... 74
FDI Structure .................................................................................................... 75
FDI Administration ............................................................................................ 75
FDI Scoring ....................................................................................................... 75
FDI Validity ....................................................................................................... 77
Narrative Analysis with Faith Development Interviews (FDI)................................... 78
Chapter 3: Hare Krishna (Gaudiya Vaisnava) Communities, a.k.a. ISKCON 89 Introduction............ 89
Overview of this Community.................................................................................. 91
Why this is a "Fundamentalist" New Religious Movement (fNRM) ...................... 94
History .............................................................................................................. 96
Outside View...................................................................................................... 104
Sociological Context ........................................................................................ 104
Social and Psychological Perspectives .............................................................. 111
Theological Context ......................................................................................... 121
Inside View: Ethnography................................................................................. 129
Central Rituals ................................................................................................. 129
Challenges and Questions for this Community ................................................... 144
Chapter References............................................................................................. 148
Chapter 4: Jehovah's Witnesses.................................................................... 151
Introduction......................................................................................................... 151
Overview of this Community................................................................................ 153
Why this is a "Fundamentalist" New Religious Movement (fNRM) .................... 157
History ............................................................................................................ 160
Outside View...................................................................................................... 170
Sociological Context ........................................................................................ 170
Theological Context ......................................................................................... 175
Inside View: Ethnography..................................................................................... 182
Challenges and Questions for this Community ................................................... 194
Chapter References............................................................................................. 198
Chapter 5: Seventh Day Adventists............................................................... 201
Introduction......................................................................................................... 201
Overview of this Community................................................................................ 202
Why this is a "Fundamentalist" New Religious Movement (fNRM) .................... 205
History ............................................................................................................ 209
Outside View...................................................................................................... 225
Sociological Context ........................................................................................ 225
Theological Context ......................................................................................... 230
Inside View: Ethnography..................................................................................... 245
Challenges and Questions for This Community .................................................. 256
Chapter References............................................................................................. 260
Chapter 6: The Restoration Movement/Churches of Christ 263 Introduction......... 263
Overview of this Community................................................................................ 264
Why this is a "Fundamentalist" New Religious Movement (fNRM) .................... 271
History ............................................................................................................ 275
Outside View...................................................................................................... 287
Sociological Context ........................................................................................ 287
Theological Context ......................................................................................... 298
Inside View: Ethnography..................................................................................... 305
Challenges and Questions for This Community .................................................. 315
Chapter References............................................................................................. 318
Chapter 7: The Charismatic Restoration Churches in the 21st Century 322
Introduction......................................................................................................... 322
Overview of this Community................................................................................ 325
Why this is a "Fundamentalist" New Religious Movement (fNRM) .................... 331
History ............................................................................................................ 338
Outside View...................................................................................................... 346
Sociological Context ........................................................................................ 346
Theological Context ......................................................................................... 351
Inside View: Ethnography..................................................................................... 361
Challenges and Questions for This Community .................................................. 371
Chapter References............................................................................................. 374
Chapter 8: Results and Conclusions Across Five fNRMs 377 Quantitative Results........... 378
Results from DIT-2 .......................................................................................... 378
Results of FDI Classic Structural Analysis ......................................................... 381
Faith Development Theory and Religious Fundamentalism ................................. 386
Results of Narrative Analysis ............................................................................ 390
Group 1: Hare Krishnas ............................................................................ 396
Group 2: Jehovah's Witnesses ................................................................... 410
Group 3: Seventh-day Adventists ............................................................. 423
Group 4: The churches of Christ Congregations ......................................... 433
Group 5: Charismatic Restoration Movement ............................................. 442
Chapter 9: Conclusions and Discussion......................................................... 454
Differences between Individual DIT and FDI Interview Data......................... 466
Practical Theological Lessons Learned ............................................................. 470
Emerging Questions for Further Study................................................................... 483
Main Bibliography........................................................................................... 486
Appendix 1....................................................................................................... 507
Consent To Participate In A Research Study......................................................... 507
Appendix II...................................................................................................... 511
Faith Development Interview Guide...................................................................... 511
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