Certain teachings in the Bible point to the need for post-formal thought structures. However, Christian post-formal development has features that distinguish it from modern post-formal development, primarily because of the divine and social dimensions of thought-formation in the Christian framework. From the Christian standpoint, true human understanding is composed by humans but derived from God; it is reconstructive. True human understanding is also rooted in the context of the Christian's communal, and personal, covenantal relation with God. Hence, the materials relevant to a Christian theory of early adult development point to a model termed “covenantal constructivism.”
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