Resource Hub
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Assessing Student Formation: A New Set of Core Assessment Tools
The definitive introduction to the Seminary Formation Assessment (SFA)—a 50-item suite of assessments measuring spiritual dwelling, seeking, struggle, and emotion regulation in seminarians.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; assessment instrument; Colloquy article; emotion regulation; psychometrics; Relational Spirituality Model (RSM); Seminary Formation Assessment (SFA); seminary students; sense of community; spiritual dwelling; spiritual formation; spiritual seeking; theological education; training resources; virtues
Assessing Student Formation: A New Overview of Approaches and Challenges
A 2026 ATS Colloquy research spotlight that offers the most comprehensive overview to date of the ways that seminaries, theology departments, and divinity schools assess student formation.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; assessment practices; Colloquy article; institutional mission; personal and spiritual formation; student formation; theological education; seminary; spirituality
Spiritual Formation among Students at Christian Seminaries: Mature Alterity, Symptoms, and Well-Being
Person-centered analysis using the Relational Spirituality Model (RSM) identifies four seminary student subgroups, with "regulated seekers" showing mature alterity, flourishing, and stable balanced spirituality over time.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; flourishing; mature alterity; mixture modeling; relational spirituality; spiritual formation
Contrasting Experiences: Gender Disparities in Spirituality, Character Strengths, Mental Health, and Social Justice among Next-Generation Religious Leaders
Empirical study of 452 emerging religious leaders documents gender disparities: women report higher character strengths and social justice values but lower mental health than men.
KEYWORDS: character; gender differences; mental health; religious leaders; social values; spirituality
Assessing Personal and Spiritual Formation at ATS
Jo Ann Deasy, ATS Director of Institutional Initiatives, revisits the 2018 Formation Assessment Survey on how member schools understand formation and put assessment into practice.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; theological education; ATS Formation Assessment Survey (2018); definitions of formation; formation assessments and tools; ATS Student Data and Resources Consultation (2025); presentation (transcribed); newsletter article; study report
Setting the Frame: Standards of Accreditation and Evaluation
Heather Hartung, then-ATS Director of Accreditation, outlines how the principle-based ATS Standards of Accreditation center student learning and formation as quality theological education.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; theological education; ATS Student Data and Resources Consultation (2025); presentation (transcribed); ATS Standards of Accreditation (2020); Commission on Accrediting of ATS (COAATS); ATS Board of Commissioners; quality assurance; planning, evaluation, and educational assessment; slide deck
Latent Profiles of Seminary Students' Perceptions of Sense of Community amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
Mixture modeling of 867 seminary students during COVID-19 identifies three sense-of-community subgroups (strongly connected, moderately connected, disaffected) with distinct well-being and spirituality profiles.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; flourishing; mixture modeling; relational spirituality; sense of community; well-being
Student Perspectives on Spiritual Formation at a Jewish Pluralistic Seminary: A Qualitative Study
Reflexive thematic analysis of 36 students at a Jewish pluralistic seminary identifies on-campus, off-campus, and non-seminary contexts of spiritual formation and uniquely Jewish formation requests.
KEYWORDS: Judaism; qualitative research; seminary; spiritual formation; virtue
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality in Jewish Contexts: A Synthetic Review
Synthetic review of psychology of religion and spirituality in Jewish contexts, using the Relational Spirituality Model (RSM) to organize prior research and outline future directions for empirical study.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; empirical research; God attachment; Judaism; psychology of religion; relational spirituality; spirituality