The adult who has reached the stage of conjunctive faith reaches a new level of awareness for the world around her/him. Secure from the boundaries of the previous self, this person may now embrace the difference of others. This new faith is charecterized by the capacity to dwell within the tension of life's paradoxes, as opposed to the earlier need to collapse those tensions through polarized thoughts or opinions. At this point, the faithful person is so comfortable in the particularities of their own belief, that they may reflect on and engage with other's differing ideologies with an openminded willingness.
Perhaps we might turn to Theologian Martin Buber in his discussion of the I- Thou relationship for an additional example of this stage. In his writing, Buber speaks of "the narrow ridge." This is a place in communication where all parties may enter with the willingness to see the Divinity in the other and to be open to transformation and discovery from the other's teaching. The tension of walking this narrow ridge is that one may not remain invested in winning the argument or simply convincing the other that s/he has "the truth". The power lies in the willingness to respect the validity of the other's truth even if it contradicts one's own, while also having the capacity to communicate one's own authentic truth as it is revealed in the heart and mind at the moment of interaction.
In this stage we find a profound and deepened level of humility and acceptance for the simultaneous powerful and powerlessness of ourselves and even the Divine.
