Photo: Reuters
Photo: AP Photo by Maya Alleruzzo
Photo: Reuters
Photo: Getty Images
Projects
One cogent application of developmental pluralism applies directly to Diplomacy, International Relations, and Global Conflict. As the past decade has made so brilliantly clear. Religion has the capacity to serve as both an instigating factor toward conflict or as a backdrop for peace. Developmental pluralism determines the psychological level of interpretation within the global landscape, then uses this insight to ad a new dimension of complexity to problem solving and conflict resolution.
Projects
One of our goals is to serve groups like The World Council of Religious leaders, the Intentional Center for Religion and Diplomacy, and the United Nations, to help these groups better understand the impact and importance of taking a developmental perspective when dealing with issues of Religion and Society. Faith-based Diplomacy, or Religious Diplomacy, as it is sometimes called, can find great clarity once it also includes the added dynamic of not only multiple realities due to different cultures but also the multiple realities that exists as a result of varying degrees of psychological intelligence. Developmental Religious Pluralism is the wave of the future.
Approach
Using a comprehensive (or integral/AQAL) approach to our analysis, our model begins with an identification of five major stages of Religious Orientation (magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral). We determine each level of Religious Orientation using the sequential structures outlined by the areas within the field of Developmental Psychology:
Faith Development (Fowler)
Moral Development (Kohlberg)
Cognitive Development (Piaget, Kegan)
Ego Development (Loevinger, Cook-Greuter)
Values Development (Graves, Beck, Cowen)
As part of our approach, we create “maps” of the developmental reality in each religious tradition (both healthy and pathological) in order to demonstrate how each level of psychological development might interpret their particular tradition. In other words we uncover evidence for magic versions of Hinduism, mythic versions of Hinduism, rational versions, pluralistic versions, and integral versions, each corresponding with a specific level of psychological development. In addition to Hinduism, our approach maps the same levels within Buddhism Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.