Intuitive-projective faith

This is a fantasy-filled, imitative phase. The child, typically aged 3 to 7, is powerfully and permanently influenced by the example, moods, actions and stories of the visible faith of adults related to the child. The stage is marked by relatively fluid thought-patterns, by continually encountering novelties for which no stable operations of knowing have been formed. There is no restraint or inhibition of underlying imaginative processes by logical thought. Imagination, acting with forms of knowing dominated by perception, produces longlasting images and feelings, both positive and negative. At the stage of first self-awareness, the child is egocentric as regards others' perspectives. There is the first awareness of death and of sex, together with the strong taboos by which both cultures and individual families insulate these areas.

Stage 1 in the system of faith development described by James Fowler. It can be compared with intermediate stages of psycho-motor development of Erik Erikson. Together with the pre-stage (undifferentiated faith), it can be related to the fear level of moral development of Lawrence Kohlberg, the sensori-motor intelligence stage of Jean Piaget, the oral stage of Sigmund Freud, the oral religion of Heije Faber and possibly the pre-conscious literalism world view of Paul Tillich. Together with the following stage (mythic-literal faith) it can be compared with the intuitive thinking of Piaget and the self interest level of moral development of Lawrence Kohlberg.