| The fact that there is at present no adequate description of adulthood that deals with the orderly and sequential changes that occur within individuals with the passage of time provides a problem for the Christian religious educator who is concerned with adult faith development. How is the educator to determine a mode of sponsorship in the Christian faith that takes into account both individual differences and the developmental changes that occur through time?;The inevitability and importance of crisis experiences in the human life cycle progression is recognized by dialectical psychologists such as Klaus Riegel and Joseph Rychlak. The research of Riegel in particular has provided a dialectical model for adult growth which takes into account the inner individual life tensions and the outer sociocultural pressures. His studies show that the adaptation and reorganization that results from such crisis experiences in both individual and societal circumstances is most appropriately facilitated by dialogical procedures.;The examination of three current approaches to adult education and the religious educational extensions of these shows that Thomas Groome's "Shared Praxis" approach to Christian religious education is the one which is most adequate to adult developmental needs. With a dialectical understanding of growth as its foundation, and a dialogical methodology as its procedure, the "Shared Praxis" approach contributes positively to adult faith development. Through its insistence on the inter-relationship between the Christian Story and Vision and the uniqueness of the individual's story and vision, this approach provides a means for avoiding the privatism and individualism that is characteristic of some present-day approaches to adult development and to religious education. The transforming potential of dialogue facilitates the developing awareness within the individual of his or her own capacities for growth in Christian faith. At the same time one is made aware of the adult responsibility to work for the transformation of the society in which one lives.;Contemporary lifespan developmental research, with its foundations in the psycho-social tradition, provides significant insights for the religious educator on the experience of adulthood. Phasic theorists, in particular Erikson and Levinson, have studied the inevitable changes associated with the human life-cycle; and stage researchers such as Piaget and Fowler have dealt with maturational patterns of adult development. The work of these scholars gives a foundation for a contemporary understanding of the adult faith process with its cognitive and affective dimensions as shaped by historical communities. |
