I have been reflecting on the issue of faith development for some time. One of the most disturbing statements I have encountered along these lines was made by Freud in "The Future of an Illusion." Freud argued that God is our creation. "The defense against childish helplessness is what lends its characteristic features to the adult’s reaction to the helplessness which he has to acknowledge—a reaction which is precisely the formation of religion."1 In short, we create God because we cannot face the hard reality that we live in.

Freud’s statement contains some truth, but there is much more to God than miraculous intervention. This is where I believe faith development comes in. As a child we need our parents to change our diapers, to breast feed us, to bathe us, and to carry us. When we become teenagers and adults, we still need our parents—especially for their support, nurture, and, at times, money—but their role has changed.

I think of faith development as a journey into the changing roles of God, where God moves gradually from a powerful intervening God to a supporting and nurturing God, from transcendence to immanence, from external signs to internal changes.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer where he proposed that God be at the center of our lives and not at the periphery.

I would like to speak of God not on the boundaries but at the centre, not in weaknesses but in strength; and therefore not in death and guilt but in man’s life and goodness. As to the boundaries, it seems to me better to be silent and leave the insoluble unsolved.…God is beyond in the midst of our life.2

To Bonhoeffer, the God of the gap may be powerful, but that form of God is not able to change our lives. "God lets himself be pushed out of the world on to the cross. He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us."3 The powerful God only perpetuates our self-projection.

My understanding of faith development has significant implications in regard to moral development. Paul states in Galatians 3:24 "So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." My interpretation of Paul’s statement is that, through Christ, we are fully free. In the first paragraph of Ethics, Bonhoeffer writes, "The knowledge of good and evil seems to be the aim of all ethical reflection. The first task of Christian ethics is to invalidate this knowledge."4

Bonhoeffer further explains that thinking between good and evil is self-directed; every struggle with good and evil already presupposes alienation. "The knowledge of good and evil," states Bonhoeffer, "shows that he is no longer at one with this origin."5 Because we are alienated we have to strive to overcome this alienation through decisions between good and evil. However, a person who knows grace does not need to try to win God’s favor. The favor has already been granted. To try is to desecrate the atonement on the cross and to belittle the blood of Christ.

From a developmental point of view, this results in freedom from guilt. When I ask my son to study, he thinks, "If I study hard my parents will reward me. If I don’t, I will be grounded and I won’t be able to go out with my friends." I hope he will grow to the point where he realizes that bad grades affect his future. The journey from youth to adulthood is a journey from the struggle with rules to the responsibility of accepting consequences. Maturity requires the ability to make responsible decisions and having the courage to live with consequences of those decisions.

The freedom that Christ paid for us through his life means freedom from deciding between rewards and punishment. The cross brings to an end any struggle with sin and guilt. The cross moves us beyond the struggle between good and evil. God is guiding us in the process of development toward maturity and accountability.

Perhaps for this very reason, Bonhoeffer suggests that a powerless God is the only God who can truly help us. "Man’s religiosity makes him look in his distress to the power of God in the world. The Bible directs man to God’s powerlessness and suffering; only the suffering God can help."6

Through the life of Jesus we also learn that making the right decision does not necessarily lead to positive outcomes. Freedom is an invitation to maturity, to accountability. Freedom from God is the freedom that will truly permit us to be free for God. When we are free for God we will discover the God who is at the center and not at the periphery.

This category of thinking beyond good and evil does not suggest lack of right and wrong in our society and our lives, nor does it free us from making appropriate decisions. It means a baptism of attitude where we see things differently. The doing and decision making are no longer about our salvation, ourselves. In fact, God has come down to change the rules of engagement. Our prior concept of sin traps us within ourselves. It was designed in such a way that when we think "sin" we think "self."

I remember sitting in a number of Sabbath School classes hearing people discussing heavy senses of guilt because they ate chicken or woke up late for Sabbath School, because they filled up their gas tanks on Sabbath or slept during sermons. The irony of sin is its ability to trap us within its cycle. I often wonder why I hardly ever hear discussions about the poor, the widows, the underprivileged. I guess that when one is not free, one can not really see.

However, through the cross a new question emerges: Do we have enough courage to address problems of evil in our society, or are we too preoccupied to be righteous?

Notes and References

1. Sigmund Freud, The Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gray (New York: Norton, 1989), 699.
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (New York: Macmillan, 1971), 282.
3. Ibid., 360.
4. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics (New York: Macmillan, 1955), 17.
5. Ibid., 17.
6. Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers, 361.

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