Throughout history, Christians have reached for a variety of metaphors to try and understand and explain the journey of discipleship.

Engaging with faith development styles found in church tradition, this book also offers an important introduction to some of the multiple ways of understanding faith development which predominate today – from the single trajectory approach described by Fowler or Rohr, to the cyclical pattern identified by McLaren. It goes on to suggest a new approach, drawing on the notion of faith development as ‘story’, and progressing to a governing image of faith growth as being akin to a tree grown from seed.