This article reports an empirical research project that investigated the ways in which people's commitment to Christian faith content influenced their ways of learning. The project was set in a context of theories of adult experiential learning, and took the concept of the processes of internalization and externalization as its major focus. Within this paradigm, the external nature of Christian faith content is emphasized, together with its potential to exert an authoritative influence that in turn affects a variety of aspects of human growth and development. A typology of four "ways of believing" is offered, whereas the final discussion relates these to issues of faith development and theological reflection.