SALESIAN SPIRITUALITY AND ADULT DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES' TEACHING ON VIRTUE AND MODERN AMERICAN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LIFE CYCL

This study offers a systematic exposition of St. Francis de Sales' (1567-1622) theology and teaching on virtue and seeks to relate his work to modern American developmental psychology of the life cycle as presented by Erik Erikson and elaborated, nuanced, and modified by Daniel Levinson, George Vaillant, and others.;After some initial consideration of the Christian virtue tradition and of methodology, the study proceeds to discuss the basic elements of Salesian spiritual theology and Salesian anthropology. It then focuses on St. Francis' understanding of Christian virtue. De Sales' conception of virtue is imbued with the idea of progress. Growth in friendship with God is aided by spiritually-minded friends and is accomplished by offering everything from the joys of life to the fear of death to the Lord. The central virtue in this advance is Christian love. The soul can pass through four stages of love moving from (1) an initial resolve to love God to (4) that rare and sublime love in which God is loved in all things.;The study presents in detail Erikson's developmental theory with its eight psychosocial stages of the life cycle and their associated virtues. Adult development is further specified by consideration of the life structures of Levinson, the ego defenses of Vaillant, and the varied findings of other psychologists.;Salesian spirituality converges with this developmental psychology generally in the role attributed to human experience, the delineation of stages of growth, and the tendency to stress the positive, while the two converge more specifically in the importance attached to interpersonal relationships, in the respective discussions of virtue, in the encouragement of mature defenses, and in their basic orientation to the future. The two fields are also complementary in a number of ways. The successful resolution of Erikson's early stages, for example, seems to be a precondition for adult spiritual growth. Divergences appear in the pansexualism and determinism Erikson inherits from Freud, in the tendency of some psychologists to focus excessively on self, in the anthropological frameworks advocated, and in the situation of the locus of control.;The study concludes that Salesian spirituality is psychologically well-founded and that controlling presuppositions significantly influence the outcome of efforts to integrate Salesian spirituality and developmental psychology.