Relational spirituality profiles and flourishing among emerging religious leaders

ABSTRACT

We advanced an integrative trend examining religiousness/spirituality (R/S) and flourishing using person-centered data analyses. Specifically, we tested a relational spirituality model (RSM) proposition that a latent profile comprised balanced dwelling (e.g. R/S commitment) and seeking (e.g. R/S exploration) would emerge and display greater flourishing, relative to the other subgroups, and we did so using a diverse sample of emerging religious leaders attending 17 graduate theological schools across North America (N = 580; M_age = 31.56; SD = 11.13; range = 19–71; 47.8% female; 62.7% White). A 5-profile model best fit the data, which included an Integrated profile that depicted a balanced relational spirituality that displayed flourishing. Findings suggested that an RSM theoretical framing of R/S indicators provided a distinct relational characterization and contextual lens to offer guidance on promoting flourishing, and specifically, by intervening into the dwelling–seeking dialectic, and self- and relational regulation.

KEYWORDS:

• Relational spirituality
• well-being
• flourishing
• latent profile analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation [61515].