occasionally ventured to compare individual and cultural development,
but backed off from the topic. A few studies in anthropology offered some
supportive evidence, but mostly indirectly. Talcott Parsons The Evolu-
tion of Societies described a developmental pattern in cultural change that
in turn was used by Niklas Luhmann in Germany. ¹ Since Parsons and
Bellah had once taught a course together on this, it was not surprising
that their outlines were highly similar. James Peacock and A. Thomas Kirsch's
The Human Direction nicely fleshed out the Parsons and Bellah
theory with further illustrations. ² But in general, Piagetian interpreta-
tions of cultural evolution were conspicuous by their absence. So I pre-
sented a small paper on this at the 1980 American Academy of Religion
annual meeting, seeking leads to further sources. The reaction at the
meeting was mild and unfruitful.

Still interested, I kept running across other theories of cultural devel-
opment that were at least consistent with a Piagetian interpretation of
history. The Soviet anthropologist Lev Vygotsky proposed that individual
cognitive development might have its parallel in cultural development. ³
Vygotsky's student Alexander Luria agreed, emphasizing the importance
of cultural invention to provide new cognitive tools. Luria and Vygotsky
suggest that the logical and analytical thinking taught in formal school-
ing may not be a "natural" stage in individual development, as Piaget
thought. ⁴ We humans may all share in a capacity to learn this cognitive
style. But the many years of training required to become skillful in it
implies it is not something to which we are naturally inclined, as we are,
for example, to learn to speak a language. Whereas Piaget described
mainly a growth of internal and innate capacities in interaction with the
environment, Vygotsky gave more credit to the cultural context. None-
theless, Vygotsky's description of the sequence of cognitive skills matches
well enough with Piagetian descriptions of individual cognitive stages.

There are other theories of cultural development that fit well with
Piagetian stages. Haydn White proposes a Piagetian reading of Western
history, using literary tropes as guides. ⁵ Bernard Lonergan argues that
over the centuries Christian theology went through three stages, from
common sense to rational analysis to modern critical method. These
nicely parallel the three final stages of Piagetian development. ⁶ In 1981
James Fowler published his Stages of Faith. ⁷ His summary of individual
faith development includes a cognitive dimension that matches up well
with Lonergan's historical analysis. His formulations are based not just
on theories but also on extensive and carefully scored interviews. After
some years of relative quiet on the topic, Fowler has recently interpreted
pre-Enlightenment, Enlightenment, and post-Enlightenment thought
styles as a sequence similar to his own Piagetian interpretation of indi-
vidual development. ⁸ Richard H. Schlagel also uses Piaget to explicate the
differences he sees between mythic thought and the kind of development
represented by Parmenides' law of contradiction and Aristotle's formal

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