Development of a Holistic Model of Spirituality

Abstract

A hierarchical holistic spirituality model is presented, encompassing three distinct but related domains: faith (religious/theistic), hope (existential/meaning‐making) and love (community/relational). Diverse definitions and central domains of spirituality were examined for their inherent commonalities and contentions. The popular Spiritual Well‐Being Scale (Ellison, 1983 Ellison, C. W. 1983. Spiritual well‐being: Conceptualization and measurement.. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 11: 330–340. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) was used to represent the religious and existential domains; a new scale, the Community Spirituality Scale, was developed and tested by the authors to represent the communal and relational domain currently absent from the literature. The proposed model was tested among 198 students at an urban theology university. Findings support the underlying theory and validity of this new model, as well as its potential for clinical assessment and research.