Student Spiritual Formation Assessment in Theological Education: An Overview of Approaches

Abstract

Religious leaders are expected to embody the spiritual ideals and virtues of their communities and traditions, however recent research highlights the high levels of work-related stress and trauma exposure that can challenge healthy spiritual formation. In North America, accreditation standards for many seminaries and schools of theology that train emerging religious leaders call for attention to the multi-dimensional spiritual formation of students and there is a growing body of empirical research to inform this work. However, there has been more limited scholarly and applied literature on the assessment of spiritual formation in the contexts of theological education, and this paper offers an overview of differing assessment approaches drawing on published literature and field experience in theological education. Strengths and challenges of different assessment approaches are reviewed from interdisciplinary and practical perspectives. We conclude by summarizing a set of considerations for selecting spiritual formation assessment approaches including (a) school goals for assessment, (b) theory and theology, (c) reliability and validity, (d) sociocultural diversity, (e) contexts of assessment, (f) faculty and staff expertise and responsibility for formation, (g) funding, and (h) possibilities for collaboration.