Strategy for a Military Spiritual Self-Development Tool
Abstract
At the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College (USACGSC), students are charged with balancing their lives in terms of mind, body, and spirit. Though self-development tools are readily available to U.S. military leaders in the first two of these realms, they are not available in the third realm, that of the spirit. In "The Clash of Civilizations," political scientist Samuel Huntington contends that future conflicts will arise among cultures that are most clearly delineated by religious differences. If this is true, military officers must be able to understand faith differences around the world if they are to prevent and respond to future conflicts. Military leaders would benefit by having a practical tool to aid in the self-development of their spirit and religious cultural awareness. This thesis presents a strategy to guide the development of a military-specific spiritual self-assessment and religious cultural awareness measure. The primary research question is "What strategy should the military pursue to provide service members with a practical tool to aid in their spiritual self-assessment and development, and at the same time to prepare them for current and future operations amidst diverse religious populations?" The secondary research questions are threefold. First, "Should military leaders engage in spiritual development and study world religions?" Second, "Do any existing psychological or comparative religion theories lend themselves to the creation of a practical spiritual self-assessment tool?" Third, "Do any valid and reliable measures of spiritual development, that are inclusive of major world religion traditions and applicable to the military leader, already exist?"
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 12, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA511485
Entities
People
- Frederick M. Dini
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College