Revisionist Erikson and Caring for Troubled Congregations

Many declining Protestant congregations find that change often comes at a high price. Resistance to needed congregational change may take the form of intergenerational conflict. This essay proposes that there is a new resource for the ministry of caring for these, and other, troubled congregations, namely, the recent revision of Erik H. Erikson’s life cycle schema by Donald Capps, in which each Erikson life cycle stage is relocated to a particular decade of life. Revisionist Erikson will be brought into dialogue with a generational life cycle model, culminating in a case interpretation showing the value of revisionist Erikson for congregational care.