Relational Spirituality, Humility, and Commitments to Social Justice and Intercultural Competence

Cultural diversity and social justice are relatively controversial topics in the United States among Evangelical Christian communities, and graduate trainees in the helping professions are expected to develop commitments to social justice (SJC) and intercultural competence (ICC). The present study t...

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Published inThe journal of psychology and Christianity Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 210 - 221
Main Authors Bell, Chance A, Sandage, Steven J, Morgan, Tranese D, Hauge, Daniel J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Batavia CAPS International (Christian Association for Psychological Studies) 22.09.2017
Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Inc
Subjects
Analysis
Evangelical Christians
Evangelicalism
Graduate students
Intercultural communication
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Personal relationships
Psychological aspects
Religious aspects
Social aspects
Social justice
Spirituality
Theological schools
Theology
United States
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Summary:Cultural diversity and social justice are relatively controversial topics in the United States among Evangelical Christian communities, and graduate trainees in the helping professions are expected to develop commitments to social justice (SJC) and intercultural competence (ICC). The present study tested a hypothesized model with different relational spirituality orientations (i.e., faith maturity and defensive theology) of graduate students in the helping professions at an Evangelical seminary (N = 228) predicting SJC and ICC while controlling for dispositional humility and impression management. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated dispositional humility was positively associated with both SJC and ICC, and faith maturity (positively) and defensive theology (negatively) each predicted SJC and ICC over and above dispositional humility. These findings indicate that relational spirituality orientations and dispositional humility each contribute uniquely to SJC and ICC, and these effects are not reducible to impression management. We consider implications for both graduate training and future research.
ISSN:0733-4273