Abstract

Spiritual development is at least as important to the development of the individual and community as the development of body and mind, though its measurement is ignored relative to other aspects of development, such as education, income and wealth, and physical and mental health. In this study we produce an index of spiritual development combining measures of religious commitment (a measure of faith commitment, or quantity of spiritual knowledge or capital, and additions to or investment in that capital as reflected by the frequency of attendance at religious services), with measures of the most obvious manifestations of religious commitment, the intensity of volunteer activity and charitable giving (a measure of good works). We present the spiritual development indices and their faith and good works components for a wide variety of groups of Canadians and Canadian parents. The results of analyses show how the spiritual development index varies from person to person, and parent to parent, in Canada and the regions, within many different subpopulations of Canadians, for both women and men, mothers and fathers. Finally, the quotes at the beginning of each chapter are intended to give a summary of what major religious leaders since Biblical times have had to say about the nature of faith and good works and the relationship between the two.