In presenting this dissertation/thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Emory University, I agree that the Library of the University shall make it available for inspection and circulation in accordance with its regulations governing materials of this type. I agree that permission to copy from, or to publish, this thesis/dissertation may be granted by the professor under whose direction it was written when such copying or publication is solely for scholarly purposes and does not involve potential financial gain. In the absence of the professor, the dean of the Graduate School may grant permission. It is understood that any copying from, or publication of, this thesis/dissertation which involves potential financial gain will not be allowed without written permission. Student’s signature __________________ Andrea D. Green Moral and Faith Development in Fundamentalist Communities: Lessons Learned in Five New Religious Movements By Andrea D. Green Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Division of Religion ___________________________ John Snarey, Ed.D. Adviser ___________________________ Mary Elizabeth Moore, Ph.D. Committee Member ___________________________ Theodore Brelsford, Ph.D. Committee Member Accepted: ___________________________ Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School ___________________________ Date Moral and Faith Development in Fundamentalist Communities: Lessons Learned in Five New Religious Movements By Andrea D. Green B.S., Centre College M.Div., Duke University Th.M., Duke University Adviser: John Snarey, Ed.D. An Abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Division of Religion 2008 Abstract “Faith and Moral Development in Fundamentalist Religious Communities: Lessons Learned from Five New Religious Movements” is, first, a work of practical theology. The practical theology employed in this study understands religious communities as carriers of practical reason, asking of each of them the normative and descriptive questions: Are these communities representing the ideals and norms of their respective traditions as carriers of religious knowledge? In what ways are these communities implementers of practical religious wisdom and what is it that this wisdom teaches? With Browning (1991), my conviction is that religious communities can and do constitute embodiments of practical theology and these respective theologies participate in practical wisdom through their religious symbols, histories, narratives, and rituals. Second, this study represents an effort to take seriously subcultures of fundamentalist New Religious Movements (fNRMs). It is a response to prevailing theories of moral and faith development as suggested by the cognitive structuralist tradition. Suspecting that cognitive structuralist based assessments, and thus, their theories, render fNRM adherents’ faith and moral development in overly simplistic terms, this study proposes a qualitative method to analyze the sociological, historical, theological, and anthropological factors involved in the religious worlds created within fNRMs. This method, alongside traditional developmental assessments, elevates, for full view, the complexities of faith and moral development in fundamentalist communities. The studies of these five fNRMs moved in different directions, but systematically revealed different but complex factors, sophisticated styles and modes of integration in patterns of reasoning involved in the daily negotiations of living in faith communities, thinking through the contents of faith, and maintaining faith-based commitments. The results of this study point toward poststructuralism, with its theories of multiple subjectivities, to account for the complex patterns of reasoning required to negotiate multiple subjectivities in an increasingly demanding world. Perhaps a poststructuralist theory of both moral and faith development are needed to more accurately describe both of these processes as we now understand them in the context of postmodernity. Poststructuralism suggests that, rather than stages of faith and moral development, individuals adopt constellations of patterns of reasoning that are locally and communally driven. Moral and Faith Development in Fundamentalist Communities: Lessons Learned in Five New Religious Movements By Andrea D. Green B.S., Centre College M.Div., Duke University Th.M., Duke University Adviser: John Snarey, Ed.D. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Division of Religion 2008 Frequently Used Abbreviations Charisma --- Third-Wave Restoration Charismatic Churches coC --- churches of Christ DIT --- Defining Issues Test FDI --- Faith Development Interview fNRM --- Fundamentalist New Religious Movement HK --- Hare Krishna(s) ISKCON --- International Society of Krishna Consciousness, the legal corporation of Hare Krishna communities NWT --- New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Jehovah’s Witnesses) QED --- Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine WTS --- Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the legal corporation of Jehovah’s Witnesses The churches of Christ reject the claim and resist the notion of being a denomination. They consider themselves a group of believers who practice New Testament Church. Therefore, it is appropriate to not capitalize the “c” in “churches” when describing this group. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction.........................................................................................................1 Epistemology................................................................................................................... 9 Practical Theology......................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 2: Models and Measures of Morality and Faith .............................38 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 38 Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) .................................................................................. 39 Kohlberg’s Moral Judgment Interview (MJI) ................................................. 42 James R. Rest (1941-1999) ........................................................................................... 42 Rest's Early Research and Implications for Moral Judgment Research.......... 43 The Defining Issues Test (DIT)....................................................................... 44 Neo-Kohlbergian Stage Development: The Minnesota Model....................... 46 Schema Theory and the Minnesota Model...................................................... 50 The Three Predominant Schemas and Their Epistemological Features.......... 53 From Stage to Schema..................................................................................... 60 DIT Structure................................................................................................... 62 DIT-2 Administration...................................................................................... 63 DIT-2 Scoring.................................................................................................. 63 DIT-2 Validity................................................................................................. 65 Fowler’s Faith Development Theory............................................................................. 65 Fowler’s Faith Development Interview (FDI)................................................. 74 FDI Structure................................................................................................... 75 FDI Administration ......................................................................................... 75 FDI Scoring ..................................................................................................... 75 FDI Validity..................................................................................................... 77 Narrative Analysis with Faith Development Interviews (FDI) ..................................... 78 Chapter 3: Hare Krishna (Gaudiya Vaisnava) Communities, a.k.a. ISKCON............................................................................................................ 89 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 89 Overview of this Community ........................................................................................ 91 Why this is a “Fundamentalist” New Religious Movement (fNRM).............. 94 History ............................................................................................................. 96 Outside View............................................................................................................... 104 Sociological Context ..................................................................................... 104 Social and Psychological Perspectives.......................................................... 111 Theological Context ...................................................................................... 121 Inside View: Ethnography........................................................................................... 129 Central Rituals..............................................................................................