PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Based on the recent proposal in this journal (Streib, 2001a) to revise James Fowler’s (1981) faith development theory, the article argues for a revision of faith development research to account not only for structural diversity, but also for narrative and content diversity. Therefore, it suggests the inclusion of content-analytical and narrative-analytical procedures into faith development research. The argument develops in light of a review of 53 empirical studies that all have used Fowler’s faith development instrument or a variation thereof; this review pays attention to the instruments that have been proposed for quantitative research in faith development, but especially to the empirical studies that have already included narrative- and content-analytical approaches. The article concludes with a proposal for a revised research design that integrates attention for structure, content, and narrative and suggests a coherent methodological procedure for future research in faith development.