Stages of Spiritual Growth

I’ve been reading a great book recently called “Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With Has Lost its Meaning.” In the first few chapters, the author Scotty McLennan outlines 5 stages of spiritual growth:

Magic – kids are usually in this stage, believing in fairy tales and Santa Claus
Reality – Wanting to know what’s real and not real. Telling other kids that Santa Claus doesn’t exist.
Dependence – relying on a teacher or a guide for spiritual growth/sustenance. Relating to God as a parent.
Independence – skepticism towards the received wisdom of the dependence stage, working to debunk myths. Often think of self as spiritual, but not religious.
Interdependence – recognizing the constructed nature of religion, but finding meaning in it anyway. Example: someone who knows Jesus wasn’t really born in Bethlehem, but finds meaning in the Christmas story.
Unity – someone who’s achieved a mystical union with the divine. (Obviously, not everybody gets to this point)

I find it fascinating to think that spirituality has a path like any other type of development – physical, emotional, mental. It’s helpful to me for understanding people at different stages in their faith. Of course, like any developmental growth, these stages are more like broad outlines than discrete categories. One day we might be feeling independent – challenging every assumption – and then the next day we might just want someone to tell us what to think, or on the other hand feel comfortable with all the paradoxes. But the basic idea is useful—that everyone is not in the same place in our spiritual journeys, and that we can understand each other better with a little extra knowledge.