Resource Hub
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Clergy Formation at Academy for Jewish Religion
An overview of the approach to clergy formation at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR), detailing its four core realms and methods for assessment.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; ATS Student Data and Resources Consultation (2025); case study; clergy formation; online / distance / distributed modality; pluralist Jewish context; slide deck; spiritual development; theological education
Formational Assessment at Saint Mary Seminary - Cleveland
Presentation on how Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology assesses spiritual, human, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions of formation.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; ATS Standards of Accreditation (2020); ATS Student Data and Resources Consultation (2025); clergy formation; MDiv outcomes; Program of Priestly Formation (6th); seminarian assessment; slide deck; spiritual formation
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
Strengthening the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Tomorrow's Faith Leaders in Theological Education Settings
This (U.S.) federal report is based on an August 2023 expert panel concerning faith leader training, mental health, self-care, community partnership, and theological education.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; clergy burnout; conference proceedings; faith leaders; mental health; resource compendium; self-care; seminary training; theological education; well-being
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
Spiritual Formation in Theological Education: A Multi-case Exploration on Seminaries and Student Development
Multi-case exploration of spiritual formation at four seminaries (Fuller, Truett, Talbot, TEDS) addressing the lack of institutional definitions of "personal and spiritual formation" under ATS 2020 standards.
KEYWORDS: character/virtue; spiritual formation; theological education
The Impact of Financial Health on the Spiritual, Mental, and Relational Health of Christian Graduate Students
DESCRIPTION: Financial stress can affect seminary students across multiple dimensions of well-being, including spiritual, mental, and relational health. Using data from 189 students at five theological seminaries, this study examines whether spiritual health helps explain how financial stress relates to broader health outcomes. Structural equation modeling found that spiritual health accounted for part of the negative relationship between financial stress and both mental and relational health. The authors suggest that supporting students’ spiritual health may be an important component of interventions aimed at improving the holistic well-being of seminarians facing financial strain.
KEYWORDS: financial health; financial stress; holistic health; mental health; relational health; seminary students; spiritual health; student debt; student well-being; theological education
Experiential Avoidance Mediates the Relationship between Prayer Type and Mental Health before and through the COVID-19 Pandemic
DESCRIPTION: This longitudinal study examines how different types of prayer relate to anxiety, depression, and burnout among 564 seminary students from 17 theological schools. Colloquial, liturgical, and meditative prayer predicted lower experiential avoidance, which in turn was associated with fewer mental health symptoms; petitionary prayer showed no significant direct or indirect effects. The findings suggest that prayer practices may contribute to spiritual and character formation partly by helping seminarians remain engaged with difficult thoughts and emotions rather than avoiding them, with implications for student formation, mentorship, and well-being.
KEYWORDS: anxiety; burnout; character formation; COVID-19; depression; experiential avoidance; mental health; prayer; psychological flexibility; seminarians; spiritual formation; spiritual practices; student well-being