Walk in wisdom’s path: contributions of faith, age, and personal wisdom to ideas of cultivating wisdom

Abstract

While there have been many advances in the psychology of wisdom in the last 30 years, mainstream research has yet to take into serious account the role of religion in developing wisdom. Instead, the majority of research has focused on the influence of age or life experience. To examine the relative contributions of faith, age, and personal wisdom to participants understanding of how wisdom develops, the narratives of 16 participants, 8 scoring high on the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale and 8 scoring low, from 2 age cohorts (18–25 and 60–85) and 4 religious backgrounds (Atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim) were analyzed for themes and implicit narratives of developing exemplary qualities. Initial suggestion is found that while the Atheist participants discuss factors that have already been accounted for in the present literature on the development of wisdom, participants from religious groups, particularly Buddhist and Muslim participants, discuss adherence to a traditional path of learning as being vital to developing wisdom, emphasizing the ability of the wise to bring others along the same path. Implications for present theories of wisdom and endeavours to teach for wisdom are discussed.

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