Undifferentiated faith

In the new-born baby, the seeds of trust, courage, hope and love are fused in an undifferentiated manner. They contend with threats of abandonment, inconsistencies and deprivations in the environment of the infant. The quality of mutuality and the strength of trust, autonomy, hope and courage underlie future faith development while their opposites threaten to undermine it. The fund of basic trust and the relational experience of mutuality with the provider(s) of primary love and care is the emergent strength of faith at this stage. Possible dangers or deficiencies are: the emergence of excessive narcissism, so that there is continued domination of the experience of being central, so that mutuality is distorted; experience of neglect or inconsistencies may cause the infant to be locked in a pattern of isolation and failed mutuality. The convergence of thought and language opens up the use of symbols in speech and ritual play and begins the transition to Stage 1. It may be that some mental disturbances involving megalomania and narcissism, when the person identifies him or herself with the whole of reality or claims, for example, to be God, are due to not having successfully completed this first transition.

The pre-stage in the system of faith development described by James Fowler. It can be compared with the oral-sensory (trust versus mistrust) stage of psycho-motor development of Erik Erikson. Together with the first stage (intuitive-protective faith), it can be related to the fear level of moral development of Lawrence Kohlber, 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.