Relationships between Religiosity, Spirituality, and Charitable Involvement at a Christian Institution

In 2003, the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA began a multi-year study to examine the spiritual development of college students. This study highlighted the differences between religiosity, spirituality, and spiritually related qualities. It found that, nationwide, many college students are highly spiritual, but religiosity is waning. A replication of that study was conducted at Hope College to determine how closely tied Hope students’ religious practices are to their spiritual beliefs, and how these factors are demonstrated in their lives. As an institution devoted to education in the Christian tradition, Hope College seeks to provide students with deeply meaningful religious beliefs. Not only would we expect Hope students to be more religious than students at other institutions, we would expect that their religious beliefs are strongly related to their spirituality and the practice of spiritual qualities in everyday life. Furthermore, this study examines the differences between Christian and non-Christian students at Hope