Thus, to measure the success of education in UPH Surabaya, in particular religious education is the growing spirituality of learners.
Thus both the government and UPH Surabaya, we see continuity in talking about the understanding of faith and spirituality on the learners. So it is not surprising, for the evaluation of higher education in Indonesia, and specifically in UPH Surabaya, spirituality student becomes the criterion.
Spirituality and Measurement
Spirituality
Spirituality today is a word widely used in various occasions and fields. However, like love, until now no one is able to accurately provide a definition that satisfies all parties. Even long enough, experts try to define spirituality that can be accepted throughout the community. However, until now very much an evolving definition of spirituality in society, according to the perspective of each discipline and interests. Simply put, Christians understand that God is Spirit and human kind created in His image. Therefore, in the Christian tradition we can claim that being human is a spiritual being. In fact, there are some Christians, who are extreme measure other’s spirituality by saying, that those who had received the gift of the Holy Spirit have high spirituality, while those who do not or do not yet have a lower spirituality. And of course such a view is not correct, can even be said to be misguided. However, at present, the understanding of Christian spirituality to face the changing times. Today, many scholars claim that true spirituality is not talked about religion, or even some say spirituality has nothing to do with religion at all. Laszlo Zsolnai (2004, 2005) said that “Spirituality is the basis of religious beliefs and traditions. While a religion is usually based on a set of tenets that are shared by its members … spirituality is simply the context for all religious belief.” Further more, he said “spiritual more than that because a person can be spiritual – follow a spiritual path – without adhering to any particular religion. And a person who, as a matter of social convention, follows the rules and traditions of a religion can appear to be religious, without being spiritual.” Spirituality is no longer a phenomenon discussed quietly and reservedly in church circles, but has increasingly entered the public arena.
The term spirituality is derived from the word spiritualité (France). However, this word is rooted in the Greek language in the form adjective nominative masculine singular of [caption caption="yunani"]
Some of definition given by some scholars according to spirituality: The presence of a relationship with a Higher Power that affects the way in which one operates in the world (Armstrong, 1995); The human response to God’s gracious call to a relationship with himself (Benner, 1989); The search for existential meaning (Doyle, 1992); A way of being and experiencing that comes about through awareness of a transcendent dimension and that is characterized by certain identifiable values in regard to self, life, and whatever one considers to be the Ultimate (Elkins, Henderson, Hughes, Leaf, and Saunders, 1988; That which is involved in contacting the divine within the Self or self (Fahlberg and Fahlberg, 1991); The way one lives out one’s faith in daily life, the way a person relates to the ultimate conditions of existence (Hart, 1994); That vast realm of human potential dealing with ultimate purposes, with higher entities, with God, with love, with compassion, with purpose (Tart, 1975); A subjective experience of the sacred (Vaughan, 1991). In general, some experts agree that spirituality is a living; dynamic process that centers on something, that person is understood as a sacred and divine. Can also, we understand spirituality as a way of achieving the holy and divine, and to achieve it, people can use different paths. Some experts explain that spirituality related to one’s practice and experience, are subjective and internal. Spirituality can also be regarded as a quest for God. That's why spirituality involves attitudes, actions, and believes in the search to know and experience God. It also can be said about innate characteristic of human being, that's why human have capability for self-transcendence. Thus, we may say that spirituality is one’s tendencies according to the ultimate being and their existential. It’s consists of all the beliefs and activities by which individuals attempt to relate their lives to God or to a divine being or some other conception of a transcendent reality.
When we talking about the theology, we trying to understand our faith, that is faith seeking understanding. Whereas when we talk about spirituality we will look at human relationships with ultimate being they believe in. Theology will help someone to find and understand what they trust in, and the understanding will help them in creating attitudes, actions, and believes to experiencing the ultimate being, that is spirituality. Thus, we can’t separate theology and spirituality, for both is very closely linked, related to the same speech that is transcendent reality and man through faith.
Measuring Spirituality
First thing first, the Bible said in 1Cor 2:14-15. “14Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.” From this passage I can say that we actually never be able to measure someone’s spirituality. Because to some extent the measurement of spirituality will be judgments for others, but God Himself is the right judgments, so actually, no human be able and allow to measure the spirituality.
Because of inability to measure the spirituality, so this research will not measure spirituality in the sense of biblical perspective. There for, I just able to measure the empirical study of spiritual experience from psychological perspective. Psychology means, we study the tendencies of some one in their mind and behavior. This area commonly call as psychology of religion, this has involved the description and analysis of certain specialized types of experience, as well as an investigation of the more ordinary ways in which religious faith affect the behaviors and cognitive process of believers (VandenBos, 2007).
Since the emergence of psychology of religion until now, we can find many instruments developed by experts to be able to pay attention to various aspects of human religious life. Once the diversity of people's behavior and the wide scope of religious life led the very diverse instrument arise, organized for the purpose of which is also very diverse. We may mention some of the instruments:
- Spiritual Well-Being Scale (Ellison, 1983; Paloutzian & Ellison, 1982): a 20-item self-administered scale with two dimensions: religious and existential. Tested in a college population.
- Spiritual Perspective Scale (Reed 1987): a 10-item structured interview or questionnaire format administered in healthy and terminally ill adults shown to be reliable, accurate and relevant in those populations.
- Meaning in Life Scale (Warner 1987): 15-item administered by interview, tested in a facility for the chronically and terminally ill. The intent is for the patient to report his or her assessment of the worth of life remaining.
- Herth Hope Index (Herth, 1990): a 12-item interview containing three dimensions: temporality and future, positive readiness and expectance, and interconnectedness. Tested on family caregivers of terminally ill people and terminally ill persons as well as in community and hospital patients and family members.
- Index of Core Spiritual Experiences (INSPIRIT) (Kass 1991): an 18-item interview scale used for spiritual assessment in general population as well as hospital patients.
- Death Transcendence Scale (VandeCreek 1993, Hood 1983): a 25-item self-administered scale based on the premise that "death is transcended through identification with phenomena more enduring than oneself." This scale has been tested in a diverse adult sample including the hospital setting.
- FACT-Sp (Fitchett 1996): a 12-item scale that can be used alone or with the FACT-G, a general measure developed for cancer patients. Items examine faith and sense of purpose and meaning in life.
There are many other instruments developed by many scholars trying to understand about religious behavior and spirituality. And for this study I use the Spiritual Well Being Scale developed by Paloutzian and Ellison (1982). According to Ellison (1983), spiritual well-being can be viewed as an expression of spiritual maturity, but also as the integral experience of a person who is functioning as God intended (Ellison & Smith, 1991). So this instrument may be use to assess spirituality maturity from the perspective of psychology.
Methodology
The sample included 153 Christian undergraduate students (45.8% males and 54.2% females). They already finish all subjects for Christian Studies. All the participants were Indonesian, students from all major (Management 27.5%, Accounting 15.0%, Information System 13.1%, Creative Industry 11.8%, Law 12.4%, and Psychology 20.3%). The participants also mention their churches affiliation (Catholics 16.3%, Presbyterian 41.2%, Pentecostals 8.5%, Charismatic 26.1%, and other 7.8%)
