The Spiritual Formation of Religious Leaders: An Analysis of The Association of Theological Schools’ Graduating Student Questionnaire Data

Recent research on mature alterity , or humbly engaging with others’ differentness, showed a negative relation with religiousness/spirituality. There were also mixed findings for the association between mature alterity and well-being. Using a sample ( N = 5,528; M age = 41.92; 55% male; 57% White) of graduating students at 151 North American institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, we employed variable- and person-centered analyses to examine associations between religiousness/spirituality, mature alterity, and well-being. We found that greater religiousness/spirituality correlated with lower mature alterity. Greater religiousness/spirituality was associated with greater global well-being and lower social well-being. Consistent with the theoretically informed expectation based on the relational spirituality model, those higher in both religiousness/spirituality and mature alterity showed higher well-being. These findings call for seminary leadership to practice theoretically informed judicious assessment of their students’ educational experience. Such an approach to assessment may elucidate possible entry points for targeted intervention to mitigate against reduced well-being, which was evident among some of the seminarians in our sample.