Young Clergy

A Biographical-Developmental Study

Donald Capps, Andrew J Weaver

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780789026705
• eBook ISBN: 9781317786733
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Five historic ministersfive formative career pathswhich path are you on?

According to Daniel Levinson's developmental theory, each person's professional career path forms at the same time in their life, in their 20s and 30s. Young Clergy: A Biographical and Developmental Study applies Levinson's study to ministerial practice, mapping the career patterns of five historical ministers during that time period in each life. The author clearly presents deep psychological insightssupported by solid biographical information on each minister's actions and reactions to challengesillustrating how the theory holds relevance for young professional clergy even today.

Young Clergy: A Biographical and Developmental Study reviews each minister's Novice Phase, where the major tasks of forming a dream, forming mentor relationships, and forming an occupation are presentedand stringently supported by concrete biographical events. The book then shows how this phase leads each from their early adult transition through their entrance into the adult world, and then on to the life-altering events in the Age 25 Shift and the Age 30 Transition. From there the text reveals the formative Settling Down Period through events that unfold between the ages of 33-40. The author discusses how this period determines the subsequent course of each one's career and, more importantly, shapes each one's attitudes, values, and convictions of a life as a minister. Using fascinating biographical information from multiple sources, the author builds a well-reasoned case that no matter how long ago these important men lived, their career patterns and lives hold a wealth of insightful information to help you maximize strengths and minimize liabilities in your own career and life today.

Young Clergy: A Biographical and Developmental Study closely examines these five historical figure's biographies, and reviews each applicable theoretical career path:

• Phillips Brooksadvancement within a stable life structure
  
• Jonathan Edwardsdecline or failure within a stable structure
  
• John Henry Newmanbreaking outtrying for a new structure
  
• John Wesleyadvancement produces change in life structure
  
• Orestes Brownsonunstable life structure
  
  

Young Clergy: A Biographical and Developmental Study is an in-depth historical and psychological exploration of the lives of ministers and their relevance for present day clergy, perfect for professors, seminary deans of students, field education directors and their staffs, hospital chaplains involved in vocation issues, young pastors and their pastoral supervisors, and teachers of church history.

Chapter 1
Levinson's Developmental Model

Daniel Levinson’s theory of adult development is self-consciously based on Erik Erikson’s life cycle theory. In 1950 Erikson proposed that the life of an individual proceeds through the following eight stages from infancy to old age:

1. Trust versus mistrust
2. Autonomy versus shame and self-doubt
3. Initiative versus guilt
4. Industry versus inferiority
5. Identity versus identity diffusion
6. Intimacy versus isolation
7. Generativity versus stagnation
8. Integrity versus despair¹

Erikson locates the first four stages in infancy and childhood, the fifth stage in adolescence, the sixth stage in young adulthood, the seventh stage in adulthood, and the eighth stage in old age. Over the years, Erikson’s theory has influenced our understanding of infancy, childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. His theory has not been as influential on our understanding of adulthood. This is largely because he proposes a single stage, that of generativity versus stagnation, to capture the dynamics of a period of life that extends some thirty years or more.

Levinson’s theory does not replace Erikson’s view of adult development. Instead, it incorporates Erikson’s insights into a more finely calibrated theory of adult development. Rather than viewing the middle adult years largely in terms of a single stage of development, Levinson has divided the years between seventeen and sixty into two major eras—the young adult era and the middle adult era—with each era subdivided into two stable periods and two transitional periods. The stable periods encompass roughly seven years, the transitional periods five years, but variations from these norms are not uncommon. Overlap is also typical, so one should avoid thinking that each stability-transition cycle is strictly twelve years. It is never, however, less than ten years. Levinson also extends his theory to include the post sixty era of late adulthood, but his theory of development in the early and middle adult years is the major thrust of his work. It provides a theoretical formulation of sufficient complexity to take account of the variety of critical events that normally occurs in the early and middle adult years, and its division of each of these two eras into two stability-transition cycles enables us to chart and record the changes in an individual’s life with considerable precision.

As noted earlier, Levinson does not apply his theory to the study of ministers. His theory is based on extensive interviews with businessmen, university professors, novelists, and factory workers. But, as I hope to show, the theory can be readily applied to the lives and careers of ministers. However the ministry differs from these other occupations, it manifests the same developmental patterns. This fact should become patently clear as we discuss the specific features of the theory.

As indicated, Levinson divides the adult years into three major eras. The early adult era (age seventeen to forty), the middle adult era (age forty to sixty and the late adult era (age sixty to eighty). He briefly discusses a fourth era, the late-late adult era, which begins around eighty and continues until death. Only the first two eras are based on actual research and are discussed in this study. The following description of Levinson’s theory centers almost exclusively on the two earliest adult eras, the early and middle adult eras.

The Early Adult Era

Levinson suggests that the early adult era consists of two major phases: the novice phase and the settling-down phase. The novice phase begins with a five-year transitional period from adolescence to adulthood (between ages seventeen and twenty-two), continues with a more stable period in which the individual enters the adult world (between ages twenty-two and twenty-eight), and concludes with another transitional period which Levinson calls the age thirty transition (between ages twenty-eight and thirty-three).

The Novice Phase

The Early Adult Transition

Concerning the first stage of the novice phase, Levinson says that the early adult transition (age seventeen to twenty-two) is a developmental bridge between the eras of pre-adulthood and early adulthood, confronting the individual with two major tasks. The first is to terminate the adolescent life structure and leave the pre-adult world. The second is to make a preliminary step into the adult world. This preliminary step involves exploring the possibilities presented by the adult world, imagining oneself as a participant in it, and testing some tentative choices before fully entering it. This stage normally involves beginning the lifelong process of separation from parents and beginning a process of change that leads to a new home base for living as a young adult in an adult world. The majority of the subjects of Levinson’s study formed a life in early adulthood that was quite different from that of their parents. While few strongly rejected their origins, most began to loosen their ties to familial, ethnic, and religious traditions, and chose wives less on the basis of traditional family structures and more in terms of the ambitions, values, and interests of a pattern of upward mobility.

Entering the Adult World

The second, or “entering the adult world” period in the novice phase (age twenty-two to twenty-eight) involves constructing a new life structure different from the life structure developed in adolescence. If the previous period from seventeen to twenty-two was a period of transition, this period is one of consolidation and greater stability. This period involves exploring freely by keeping options open and avoiding strong commitments, but at the same time requires making some firm choices and taking on adult responsibilities. In some individuals, free exploration is dominant, in others making firm choices and assuming adult responsibilities predominates, but the opposite side is never absent. Moreover, regardless of which emphasis is primary, a general movement toward increasing commitment is evident as one approaches the end of this period. The liabilities of a provisional life structure are recognized, and there is an “increasing internal need and external pressure to work at the other task and to get more order, purpose and attachment into their lives.”²

On the other hand, Levinson points out that the task of achieving such order, purpose, and attachment is exceedingly difficult. This difficulty is due in part to specific aspects of one’s situation—economic recession, discrimination, the rivalries of a highly competitive world— and to emotional problems involved in committing oneself to an occupation, marriage, and to separation from parents. This difficulty is also due to the sheer complexity, even contradictoriness, of the developmental tasks encountered in this period of life. This difficulty is in turn further complicated because the individual is too young, inexperienced, and uncertain of his real interests and desires. Thus, while occupational and marital stability may provide the focal point around which a relatively integrated life structure may be established, no one escapes the feeling that the direction of one’s life in the middle to late twenties is unsatisfactory in at least some major respects.

In The Seasons of a Woman’s Life, published eighteen years after The Seasons of a Man’s Life, Levinson, through the assistance of his wife, Judy, identified a new feature of the novice phase which he calls “the Age 25 Shift.”³ Through analysis of the lives of the forty-five women in the study, the Levinsons found that all of the women experienced some event of decisive importance in their twenty-fifth year (not before late twenty-four or after early twenty-six). They use the word “shift” because it suggests a “smaller scale” alteration or change than the word “transition” suggests, but it typically involves a more or less conscious decision to realize a more integrated life. Thus, it is consistent with the fact that the years from twenty-two through twenty-eight are ones in which a stable life structure is being formed. Whatever the event itself may be, it involves more than a single relationship or aspect of life; it is intended to make her life as a whole more integrated and satisfying. An example of such an event at age twenty-five is having a second child. To her husband and others, this event may have no unusual significance, but, in her mind, the decision to have another child may derive from a more fundamental life choice, such as choosing to remain in a difficult marriage, or putting her occupational interests aside for the time being. Another example is taking a new job that is not markedly different from an earlier one. From an external point of view, this may not be a notable event. From a subjective standpoint, however, it constitutes a major turning point, as she is choosing not merely to take another job, but to become more independent, establish a more defined occupation, and give her family a less exclusively central place in her life. Her private intentions in making this choice may not become clearly conscious for many months or even years, although the impact on her life structure is more immediately evident.

Levinson emphasizes that even though the “Age 25 Shift” usually involves one or more major life events, the nature and consequences of the shift cannot be determined merely by looking at the external event. It is essential to look as well at the personal meaning of the events and the life structure in which they occur. Although he did not identify this shift in his earlier study of men, he guesses that it may exist for men as well. He does not speculate on what the event or events may be, but the same points would also apply to men, namely, that the intentions that lie behind the event may not become self-evident for many months or years, and it is essential to look beyond the externalities of the event and probe the personal meaning of the event in the context of the life structure in which it occurs.

Age Thirty Transition (Age Twenty-Eight to Thirty-Three)

The “age thirty transition” period in the novice phase (age twenty-eight to thirty-three) provides an opportunity “to work on the flaws in the life structure formed during the previous period, and to create the basis for a more satisfactory structure that will be built in the following period.”⁴ During this transitional period, the sense arises that the provisional, exploratory character of the twenties is ending. Also, a greater sense of urgency is felt, that if changes in one’s life are to be made, this is the time to do it before it is too late. Levinson’s research indicated that the age thirty transition is more likely to be stressful than smooth. This stress is partly because, as with all transitional periods, some of the stability achieved in the earlier period is being relinquished to prepare for the creation of a life structure with significantly new elements in the next period. This stress, however, is fundamentally because, among transitional periods, the age thirty transition can be uniquely painful because it raises searching questions concerning what one has done with one’s life to this point and what new directions one will try to initiate if still within the realm of possibility. Levinson likens the age thirty transition to that of a man alone on a body of water trying to get from one island to another. He fears that he will not reach his destination but that he has gone too far to turn back:

A man may experience himself as swimming alone, as rowing in a leaky boat, or as captain of a luxurious but defective ship caught in a storm. There are wide variations in the nature of the vehicle, the sources of threat and the nature of Past and Future. The critical thing is that the integrity of the enterprise is in serious doubt: he experiences the imminent danger of chaos, dissolution, the loss of the future.⁵

In short, a stressful age thirty transition was more the rule than the exception in Levinson’s study. Less than one in five had fairly smooth transitions.

Major Tasks of the Novice Phase

In addition to identifying the three major periods of the novice phase and noting the specific demands that each of these periods makes on the emerging adult, Levinson also describes the tasks that are common to all three periods in the novice phase. The following four tasks are common to the novice phase as a whole:

Forming a Dream and giving it a place in the life structure. Levinson points out that the novice phase of early adulthood involves exploration and choice strongly shaped by (a) the influences of family, class, subculture, and social institutions; (b) his own active striving, competence, and rational considerations; and (c) various aspects of one’s personality, including motives, values, talents, anxieties, and life goals. Levinson’s study of forty men also indicated the importance of a fourth factor, which he calls the Dream. His view of the Dream and its importance for adult development is influenced by D. W. Winnicott’s discussions of transitional periods in early childhood. Winnicott points out that in such transitional periods the child imagines various possibilities for himself in the future, and enacts these imaginings in daydreams, play, and other make-believe explorations. At the beginning the Dream “is a vague sense of self-in-adult world. It has the quality of a vision, an imagined possibility that generates excitement and vitality. At the start it is poorly articulated and only tenuously connected to reality. . . .” ⁶ But during the novice phase, the young man has the developmental task of giving it greater definition and of finding ways to live it out. The fortunate young man is the one who is able to build a life structure around the Dream. He has a better chance of personal fulfillment, though years of struggle may be required in working toward its realization. The magical or unrealistic features of the Dream will also need to be relinquished, usually during the midlife transition (age forty to forty-five). Unfortunately, however, many young men develop a conflict between a life direction expressing the Dream and another that is quite different:

A man may be pushed in the latter direction by his parents, by various external constraints, such as lack of money or opportunity, and by various aspects of his personality, such as guilt, passivity, competitiveness and special talents. He may thus succeed in an occupation that holds no interest for him.⁷

This conflict may extend over many years and evolve through various forms. But if the Dream is relinquished or remains alien to the evolving life structure, one’s sense of aliveness and purpose may be lost.

Forming mentor relationships. Finding and relating to a mentor is one of the most important and complex developmental tasks of early adulthood. The mentor is usually several years older and a person of greater experience in the world the young man is entering. The mentor’s roles include

teacher—contributing to the acquisition of skills and intellectual development;

sponsor—facilitating the young man’s entry and advancement into the occupation of his choice;

host and guide—welcoming the young man into a new professional and social world and acquainting him with its value and customs;

exemplar—exemplifying virtues, achievements, and a way of life that the younger man can admire; and

fostering the Dream—believing in the young man, sharing the Dream, and giving it his blessing.

In Levinson’s view, fostering the Dream is the most important role that the mentor can play in the development of the younger adult. In carrying out this, as well as his or her other functions, the mentor is a transitional figure. He or she is not a parent or “father figure,” because the parent is identified with the life that the younger man is leaving behind. Neither is he or she a peer, because a peer cannot represent the advanced level toward which the younger man is striving. Thus, the mentor is ordinarily eight to fifteen years older than the protege. The mentoring relationship tends to last two or three years, eight to ten years at the most, but much of the value of the relationship may be realized after its termination. Although its termination may at first evoke feelings of bitterness and abandonment, the longer range result is the younger man’s internalization of the admired qualities of the mentor. The personality of the younger man is thereby enriched as he makes the mentor a more intrinsic part of himself.

Forming an occupation. While an individual may “decide” on an occupation in his early twenties, the formation of an occupation is a complex, psychosocial process that extends throughout the novice phase and often beyond. An initial serious choice is usually made during the early adult transition (age seventeen to twenty-two) or entering the adult world (age twenty-two to twenty-eight) periods, but although the early choice seems to be very definite, it usually proves to represent only a preliminary definition of interests and values, and only begins to initiate a complex process of relating interests to occupational possibilities. In addition, one common feature of all occupations is that one does not complete his occupational novitiate or apprenticeship until his late twenties. Thus, forming an occupation involves most of one’s twenties both because of difficulties in matching interests to occupational possibilities and because occupations are themselves so structured as to require an extended novitiate before one is considered a full participant in the occupation. Moreover, by the time the novice phase comes to a close, levels of attainment can vary considerably from one individual to another, even within the same occupation. At age thirty-three, an executive type may be at the first rung of management or near the top. A biologist may be an associate professor with a national reputation or an assistant professor just beginning to do independent research. Nonetheless, in spite of major differences in levels of attainment, the more open and formative phase is normally concluded by the end of the novice phase. Subsequent occupational tasks will build on the pattern established by the early thirties.

Forming a marriage and family. Abo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Levinson's Developmental Model
• Chapter 2. Phillips Brooks: Advancement Within a Stable Life Structure
• Chapter 3. Jonathan Edwards: Decline or Failure Within a Stable Structure
• Chapter 4. John Henry Newman: Breaking Out— Trying for a New Structure
• Chapter 5. John Wesley: Advancement Produces Change in Life Structure
• Chapter 6. Orestes Brownson: Unstable Life Structure
• Chapter 7. Five Models of Professional Formation
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Index