For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about character and spiritual growth in seminary education.
If you read the mission statements of a dozen North American seminaries, certain commonalities emerge. A composite statement would indicate that seminaries exist “to prepare and equip women and men for Christian ministry.” Much of that preparation can be quantified academically or vocationally — courses completed, papers produced, internships secured. What has traditionally been less easy to measure (and thus less-often measured) has been the development of individual character over the course of their studies.
David Wang, a professor of psychology at Biola University, has a longstanding interest in the links between spiritual learning and character development. “I think anyone who has received any kind of religious theological education,” he says, “has met individuals that can get straight A’s in philosophy and theology and they know their Bible through and through, and yet they’re still suffering from really significant character flaws.”