Relationship between Personal Growth Initiative and Religious Commitment in the Ministerial Formation to Priesthood: A Case of Theology Students at Saint Dominic’s Major Seminary, Lusaka, Zambia
Date
2024-03
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Publisher
Tangaza University
Abstract
Personal growth initiative and religious commitment are fundamental in the formation of the ministerial priesthood. This quantitative study investigates the relationship between mental personal growth initiative and religious commitment at Saint Dominic’s Major Seminary, Lusaka, Zambia. The study had two hypotheses and four objectives: assessing the levels of personal growth, the levels of religious commitment, the relationship between personal growth initiative and religious commitment, and the relationship between personal growth initiative and demographic characteristics. The positivism approach was adopted in this study. The census sampling design was used to obtain the sample size of 160 Theology Students. The descriptive and inferential statistics on SPSS version 25 showed that 55.6 % (N = 160) of students had high levels of personal growth initiative while 66.3 % (N = 160) had high levels of religious commitment. A positive moderate correlation was obtained from the relationship between personal growth initiative and religious commitment (r = 0.402; p< 0.000, N = 160). Concerning demographics, age had a positive correlation with personal growth initiative at Pearson’s r = .069, p ˂ .04 (N = 160). The following had no significant relationships: levels of education at [F (3, 156) = 0.209, p = .890], religious affiliation at t (158) = .715, p =. 754, sources of motivation at [F (3, 156) = .0.188, p = .904] and seminary help at t (158) = .007, p = .801. The study recommends more psychological and spiritual accompaniment to boost low and moderate levels of Theology Students.