Correlation of the Holy Spirit Questionnaire with the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Spiritual Assessment Inventory:

The Holy Spirit Questionnaire (HSQ) is an exploratory instrument developed by Ingram and Sandvik (1994) to measure differences in perceptions regarding personal knowledge about filling of the Holy Spirit among Christians. Past examination of the HSQ asserts that the instrument is a reliable measure that examines knowledge about the Holy Spirit (Hurst, 1995). This study included 133 respondents to the HSQ and correlated their responses to results from the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) (Ellison & Paloutzian, 1982) and the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (SAI) (Hall & Edwards, 1996). Analyses demonstrated significant correlations between the HSQ and the SWBS and SAI, indicating that certain areas of religious and existential well-being and spiritual maturity are significantly related to knowledge of the Holy Spirit. ********** The Trinity is a crucial and unique doctrine within Christianity. God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit are identified by Christian theology as three separate Persons who are also simultaneously God. While the Triune God is a mystery, the ministry of all three Persons is accepted by mainstream Christian theology, and all three Persons of God are active in some fashion during the Old and New Testament periods. Sometimes, however, the role of one Person of the Trinity is more salient than the other two. To illustrate, the presence of God the Father among humanity is most prominently seen in the Old Testament period, whereas Jesus Christ the Son interacts most directly with humanity in the period described in the Gospels. The Holy Spirit, Who is the focus of this study, is considered to be the primary source through which people experience God's ministry from the time of Pentecost until the present (Erickson, 1985). While the existence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life is well defined, the nature of His presence (e.g. "filling") is a source of debate. A perusal of theological works will reveal a diversity of opinions, and among lay people the topic of the filling of the Holy Spirit is often a source of contentious debate, controversy, and confusion. Erickson (1985) comments that, depending on the environment, the term "charismatic" is either a "badge of prestige" or a stigma (p. 848). While many charismatics relate "sign" gifts such as tongues and healing to the filling of the Holy Spirit, many other groups do not. The controversy described above can lead to division and dissension among Christian communities. Additionally, the presence of the Holy Spirit in one's life is a salient issue for those Christians in psychotherapy who are striving to understand their spirituality. However, an exhaustive search of the literature reveals that there is an inadequate emphasis on this topic. Ingram (1992) describes the irony surrounding this deficit: Few in the evangelical Christian camp would attempt to deny that the Holy Spirit was intended as the main manifestation of God's ministry to man after the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. It has been disappointing, however, to observe the relative paucity of Christian psychological literature in this area, particularly when one considers the central role assigned to the Holy Spirit in managing problems of daily living in the bulk of the New Testament. (p. 2) Craker (1976), a theologian writing within the psychological literature, identifies the work of the Holy Spirit and human personality as "spirit upon spirit," and claims that an understanding of such work is beyond the limitations of modern scientific inquiry. While Craker's statement of the limits of modern empirical inquiry with regard to the person of the Holy Spirit appears correct, it does not mean that such a pursuit is in vain, given that some effects of the Holy Spirit's work could potentially be evaluated through social science methodology. To explain, it seems clear within Christianity that human beings can change through the power of the Holy Spirit. …