Evolving communities : adapting theories of Robert Kegan and Bernard Lonergan to intentional ...

384 Pages·2014·1.65 MB·English

Evolving communities : adapting
theories of Robert Kegan and Bernard
Lonergan to intentional groups
Author: Joseph Porter Draper
Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/20
This work is posted on eScholarship@BC,
Boston College University Libraries.
Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2008
Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
Boston College

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry

EVOLVING COMMUNITIES: ADAPTING THEORIES OF ROBERT KEGAN
AND BERNARD LONERGAN TO INTENTIONAL GROUPS

a dissertation

by

JOSEPH PORTER DRAPER

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

May, 2008
© copyright by JOSEPH PORTER DRAPER
2008
ABSTRACT

EVOLVING COMMUNITIES: ADAPTING THEORIES OF ROBERT KEGAN
AND BERNARD LONERGAN TO INTENTIONAL GROUPS

By Joseph Porter Draper

It has been long known that groups of adults learn and enact their learning in
certain ways; what is little known is how groups learn and how they develop in cognitive
complexity. This dissertation proposes a theory of group cognitive development by
arguing that intentional adult groups are complex and dynamic, and that they have the
potential to evolve over time. Groups are complex in that they are made up of
individuals within different orders of consciousness (Kegan), and they are dynamic in
that different orders of consciousness interact and conflict (Lonergan) during the
formation and enactment of group vision, values, and procedures. Dynamic complexity
theory of group development as it is referred to in this study is grounded in Robert
Kegan’s constructive developmental theory and in Bernard Lonergan’s transcendental
method. While both Kegan and Lonergan attend to the growth of individuals, their
theories are adapted to groups in order to understand the cognitive complexity of groups,
intragroup and intergroup conflict, and the mental complexity of leader curriculum. This
theory is applied to two case studies, one from antiquity in the case of the first century
Corinthian community engaged in conflict with its founder, St. Paul, and in one
contemporary study of American Catholic parishioners engaged in contentious dialogue
with diocesan leaders from 1994 to 2004. The parish groups experienced a series of
dialogues during a ten year period over the issues of parish restructuring and the priest
sexual abuse crisis yielding cumulative and progressive changes in perspective-taking,
responsibility-taking, and in group capacity to respond to and engage local and
institutional authority figures. Group development is observed against a pedagogical
backdrop that represents a mismatch between group complexity and leader expectations.
In Corinth, Paul’s curriculum was significantly beyond the mental capacity of the
community. In the case of Catholic parishioners the curriculum of diocesan leaders was
beneath the mental capacities of most of the groups studied.
It is proposed that individuals sharing the same order of consciousness,
understood as cognitive constituencies, are in a dynamic relationship with other cognitive
constituencies in the group that interact within an object-subject dialectic and an agency-
communion dialectic. The first describes and explains the evolving cognitive complexity
of group knowing, how the group does its knowing, and what it knows when it is doing it
(the epistemologies of the group). This dialectic has implications for how intentional
groups might be the critical factor for understanding individual growth. The second
dialectic describes and explains the changing relationship between group agency, which
is enacted either instrumentally or ideologically; and group communion, which is enacted
ideationally. The agency-communion dialectic is held in an unstable balance in the
knowing, identity, and mission of groups. With implications for the fields of adult
education and learning organizations, dynamic complexity theory of group development
notes predictable stages of group evolution as each cognitive constituency evolves, and
notes the significance of internal and external conflict for exposing the presence of
different ways of knowing and for challenging the group toward cognitive growth.
DEDICATED TO

my fellow adventurer and life partner,

Rochelle Lynn Draper,

and to our children,
Naomi, Jessica, Christopher, Matthew, and Levi,

and to those fellow travelers who have accompanied me on the journey,

Tim and Marie Draper,
Fr. Fredrick Schlatter, S. J.,
and Brother Patrick Bignell,

and to all the Peoples of God, particularly those at All Saints and Calvary,
and to the dream that is the American Catholic Church.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is impossible to acknowledge all women and men and communities that have
contributed to the development and writing of this dissertation. The Institute of Religious
Education and Pastoral Ministry (IREPM) at Boston College stands out in my mind as an
extraordinary place to learn, to grow as a person, to care pastorally, think critically, and
learn how to educate within a praxis approach. Under the leadership of Tom Groome and
Jane Regan, the IREPM challenges its faculty, students, and staff to engage in the
conversation between communities of practice and rigorous theoretical reflection. It also
supports learners in the achievement of these values. My own role as synthesis project
consultant is one such support at the IREPM that mentors students toward the values of
learning, growth, care, critical reflection and praxis pedagogy.
I would like to thank Jane Regan the members of my committee, Karen Arnold,
Frank Sullivan, S. J., and Pat McQuillan for their availability to the development of an
idea and the articulation of a vision. Each in their own way helped to clarify the core
questions, steer me toward vital scholarly sources, critique my theory construction, and
improve the overall project. Jane especially helped me stay focused and hopeful through
the many years of the development of this dissertation. The communities out of which
this project emerged, especially my study participants, their passion, their willingness to
engage in years of conversation, and their deep love of Catholicism, provided much of
the inspiration behind this work. I am indebted to them.
Finally, I am grateful for my family who shared in this labor, sometimes
protesting, sometimes in celebration, but always in love. They are as glad as I am to be at
this point.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One: Lay Catholics in Cognitively Evolving Groups…………………………..1

I. The General Context: Current Crises in the American Catholic Church
Priest Sexual Abuse Crisis and an Under-recognized Laity
Parish Restructuring Crisis
Summary

II. Research Design
The Focus of the Study
Research Question
Data Sources
Dissertation Outline

Chapter Two: Community Meaning-Making: Robert Kegan’s Constructive-
Developmental Theory in Group Settings…………………………………………...39

I. Robert Kegan’s Constructive-Developmental Theory
The Holding Environment
The Subject-Object Motion
Orders of Consciousness
Motion of Orders of Consciousness in Subject-Object Theory
Communities in Kegan’s Theory of Individual Development

II. Toward Understanding Constructive Developmental Theory in Groups
Eleanor Drago-Severson’s Developmentally Diverse Community of Connection
William Torbert’s Action Inquiry as a Model for Organizational Development
A New Understanding of Evolving Groups
Conclusion: Challenges in Theory Adaptation

Chapter Three: Constructive-Developmental Hermeneutics: A Case Study of the
Complexity Consciousness of the Corinthian Church……………………………….85

I. The Religious and Social Context: Greco-Roman Piety and Voluntary Associations
Roman “Religion” As a Way of Knowing
Voluntary Associations as Cultures of Embeddedness

II. Coach Paul and the Corinthian Church
Paul, a Common Laborer and “Religious Genius” Among the Urban Poor
Paul’s Leadership and the Cognitive Location of the Corinthian Church
Paul’s Relativization of Roles-for-Self to Gifts-for-Others
III. Conclusion
Voluntary Associations as Cultural Schools among the Urban Poor
Conversations at Cross Purposes in First Century Corinth
Implications

Chapter Four: Bernard Lonergan’s Theory of Cognition and Epistemology in Group
Settings…………………….………………………………………………………..137

I. Lonergan’s Theory of Cognition and Epistemology

II. Transcendental Method

III. Realms of Meaning

IV. Operations of Consciousness within Realms of Meaning: An Interpretation

V. Horizons, Conversion, and Conflict

Chapter Five: Lonergan and Kegan in Conversation………………………………….167

I. Constructive Developmental Theory and Transcendental Method in Conversation
Lonergan and Kegan on Subject/Object Activity/Motion
On Directionality
On the “How” of Transformation
On Conversion

II. Evolving Groups: Connecting the Philosophical and Psychological Pieces
Knowing Reality, Choosing Goodness: The Metaphysics and Ethics of Groups
Object-Subject Reactivity as a Modality of Group Transformation
Agency-Communion Reactivity as a Modality of Group Transformation
Intergroup Dynamic
The General Structure of Group Knowing

Chapter Six: A Case Study of Group Cognitive Development within Groups in Two
Catholic Parishes ……………......................……………………………………….206

I. Hierarchy Curriculum
Cognitive Complexity of Diocesan Events
Hierarchical Patterns of Dialogue

II. 1994 Group: A Dialogue on Parish Ministry
Group Experience and Understanding
Dialectic: Curriculum and Group Cognitive Complexity

III. The 2001 Parish Restructuring Initiative
Group Experience and Understanding
Group Complexity
Dialectic: Curriculum and Group Complexity

IV. The 2002 Listening Sessions
Group Experience and Understanding
Group Complexity
Dialectic: Curriculum and Group Complexity

V. 2003 Group: Visioning with the Pastor
Group Experience and Understanding
Group Complexity
Dialectic: Vision Construction and Group Complexity

VI. 2004 Lay Collaborative Inquiry Group
Group Experience and Understanding
Group Complexity
Dialectic: Vision and Group Complexity

VII. Some Findings: Evolving Communities and Leadership

Chapter 7: Dynamic Complexity Theory of Group Development…………………….300

I. Dynamic Complexity of Group Development
II. Self Shepherding Sheep among Sheep in Shepherd’s Clothing

Appendix 1: Methods…………………………………………………………………..323

I. Method of Data Collection and Analysis
II. Strengths and Limits of the Study

Appendix 2: Complexity of Hierarchy Curriculum……………………………………335

I. 1994 Parish Restructuring Initiative
II. 2001 Parish Restructuring Initiative
III. 2002 Priest Sexual Abuse Listening Sessions
IV. 2003Visioning Process

References……………………………………………………………………………...366