Relationship between Personal Growth Initiative and Religious Commitment in the Ministerial Formation to Priesthood: A Case of Theology Students at Saint Dominic’s Major Seminary, Lusaka, Zambia

Personal growth initiative and religious commitment are fundamental in forming candidates for the ministerial priesthood. This quantitative study investigated the relationship between personal growth initiative and religious commitment of theology students at Saint Dominic's Major Seminary, Lusaka, Zambia. The positivism approach was adopted in this study and a census sampling design was employed to obtain the sample size of 160 theology students aged between 21 and 37 years. Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS-II) and Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10) were tools used for data collection. The theoretical framework was based on the Self-Determination Theory and Religious Commitment Theory. SPSS version 25 was used for data analysis, and 55.6 % of theology students had high levels of personal growth initiative, while 66.3 % had high levels of religious commitment. The study also showed a positive moderate correlation in the established relationship between personal growth initiative and religious commitment (n = 160, r = .402, p = .000). This implied that as students improved in their personal growth initiative, they also grew in religious commitment. The study recommended more investment in personal growth initiatives, which will bring about an increment in religious commitment among seminarians.