02 Mar 2025: Spiritual Autobiography in a DMin Program
Spiritual Autobiography in a DMin Program
Rev. Paul Bramer, PhD
The Ven. Pilar Gateman, DMin
Paul Bramer is retired as Director of the DMin program and Professor of Christian Formation and Leadership at Tyndale University, Toronto, Canada (2017). He is currently a spiritual director and leadership consultant. (https://www.FormationInsights.org)
Pilar Gateman is Executive Officer and Archdeacon of the Anglican Church in Calgary and a spiritual director. She is a graduate of the DMin program at Tyndale University, Toronto, Canada (https://www.FTWSpiritualDirection.com; revpilar@gmail.com)
Abstract
The experience of writing a spiritual autobiography as part of Doctor of Ministry program is described, based on a survey and selected interviews. The enjoyment and challenge of the project were both rated high. Challenges, aids, and insights are reported. Spiritual autobiography is demonstrably an appropriate and beneficial exercise in a spiritual formation program.
Introduction
Life review and autobiographical reflection are appropriate activities in a program in which reflection on personal and ministry development is a major focus. This is particularly true in a Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program in which integration, contextualization, leadership growth, and maturation in the personal, spiritual, ministry and theological domains are intentionally addressed (The Association of Theological Schools 2020, Standard 5:3).
An autobiography is an account of one’s life, usually in chronological order, written, and intended to be read by others. A spiritual autobiography pays particular attention to experiences of God, religious participation, spiritual formation, and ministry vocation. Variations on spiritual autobiography, including memoir (Andrew 2005), life review (Haight 2007), autoethnography (Bilgen 2022) and the intensive journal method (Progoff 1975, Staude 2005) could also be used profitably.
Studies on various populations have confirmed the value of life review in enhancing emotional and spiritual well-being (Lamers et al. 2014, Westerhof et al. 2010), psychological adaptation and psychological development (McAdams and McLean 2013), self-stability in times of turmoil (Dirghangi and Wong 2022), self-insight, meaning and purpose (Haight and Haight 2007, 18), and awareness of God’s work in one’s life as this study shows.
Writing one’s spiritual autobiography as a devotional practice and witness to God’s grace has an important and longstanding place in the Christian faith (Staude 2005) from the templates provided by the Apostle Paul (Acts 22, 26, Galatians 1, Philippian 3) to the groundbreaking Confessiones (c.400 AD) of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, through the autobiographies, many by women, near the end of the Middle Ages (e.g., Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Teresa of Avila) to the flourishing of the practice among the Puritans (e.g., John Bunyan, George Fox). Numerous commentators have called the present time the age of memoir (Showalter 2023) and the writing of autobiography in general and spiritual autobiography has increased sharply over the past few decades.
The authors have witnessed the value of life review and life writing, both for themselves for others and in the context of pastoral care, spiritual direction, and formational education. As we reflected on the role of spiritual autobiography in formation, we found ourselves with some questions about “users experience:” What were the challenges and the benefits of writing a spiritual autobiography? What was helpful? Was it regarded as a work in process or a finished product?
Paul Bramer had conceptualized and taught a course on spiritual autobiography at Tyndale University’s Doctor of Ministry program and Pilar Gateman had graduated from that spiritual formation program after doing extensive work on the Examen, a form of spiritual reflection, and taught spiritual autobiography in an undergraduate program so we were aware of people who had valuable experience in this exercise who might be willing to give us some feedback.
Participants
Those asked to participate in a survey were graduates from a Doctor of Ministry program in Spiritual Formation at Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada. All students in that track take a 12-month course, “Spiritual Autobiography: The Ways of God in a Life.” Students read 6-8 spiritual autobiographies, write their own autobiography (40-80 pages), and meet for discussion and sharing. This autobiography becomes a component in an integrated portfolio which includes two other major projects: a model of spiritual formation and a field-based action-research project (available through the Theological Research Exchange Network). The volunteer sample was 22 of a possible 89. The gender ratio was 2:1 male to female. The average age at time of composing their autobiography was 50 years.
Enjoyment of the Process
Respondents were asked to rate their overall enjoyment of the experience of writing their spiritual autobiography on 5 point Likert scale from very low to very high. The average and median rating was “high” with 7 respondents choosing “very high” and only 2 respondents rating “low.”
Respondents identified some things they specifically enjoyed. Frequently mentioned was “the simple enjoyment of remembering—relishing, cherishing, pondering, thanksgiving.” Another source of enjoyment was “catching a glimpse of the big picture.” Life review facilitates a stepping back when one can see overarching themes, repeating patterns, the whole tapestry and not just the many threads. This big picture was often infused with “seeing the hand of God on my life in ways I hadn’t noticed before.” Another common experience was that of “clarifying and gaining insight” including insight into self, God, others, and context. A sense of gratitude often emerged.
Challenges to Writing
More respondents rated the degree of difficulty in composing their spiritual autobiographies as moderate. A third rated the difficulty as high or extremely high. A quarter experienced little or no difficulty. It should be recognized that this can be both a very positive and a very demanding exercise.
The most frequently mentioned challenge was “what to include and what not to include.” There is so much life that has been lived and recording all that has been stored in long-term memory, let alone reflecting on its meaning, would be an impossible task. The exercise of selecting what to include in an autobiography becomes part of the interpretative process. Remembering itself is a complex process and was noted by several as one of the challenges: “some details have been lost.”
The challenge of what to tell—and not tell—is further complicated by the eventual public status of the autobiography: How much do you disclose before it may become a risk to your career or reputation? How do you present people who were consequential but harmful in your life? How comprehensive or accurate does a retelling need to be? Some of these questions were worked through in seminars and spiritual direction.
Writing in Times of Transition
Sometimes spiritual autobiographies are written in times of transition whether ordination or change of ministry, rehabilitation or trauma recovery, retirement or impending death, mid-life challenge or other. Subjects were asked to rate the extent to which their life was in significant transition during their writing, from very low to very high. The median was “high,” and the mean was between moderate and high, with 70% choosing one of those two. The degree to which they felt that writing their autobiography was helpful to them during the transition was similar to the above. A fairly strong positive relationship was found between the extent of transition and the helpfulness of the writing project in that transition; those who whose lives were in a higher degree of transition were more likely to find the life review exercise helpful with the PPMCC +0.81. So while there are no guarantees that writing one’s spiritual autobiography (or general autobiography) will be helpful during a life transition, it is quite likely that it would be. Dirghangi and Wong’s study concluded that narrative identity promotes resilience during unstable times (Dirghangi and Wong 2022).
Aids to Writing
Respondents were asked to identify activities or supports they found helped them in writing their spiritual autobiography. All 19 items, all received at least 3 votes.
“Taking time to remember and reflect” was noted by over 80%. This is the core of this exercise: one must remember and reflect to interpret and present a somewhat coherent narrative of one’s life. The time taken for such an endeavour goes beyond the time it takes to write.
“The uncovering of recurring themes” was the second most frequently noted aid (76%). A close third (71%) was “praying or other spiritual disciplines” such as taking a retreat, doing the examen, and journalling.
The next seven aids were all nominated by about half of the respondents: Having the opportunity to share parts of their spiritual autobiography with others; creating a timeline; reading the autobiographies of others; taking one event at a time (while others preferred to write in bits and pieces throughout the range of their life); setting a regular time aside (while others wrote inspirationally); using guiding questions or prompts and having conversations with family, friends, and fellow autobiographers.
Although the rest were selected by less than half, for certain people these particular aids were extremely helpful: meeting with a spiritual director or counsellor; using relevant quotations, poetry, song lyrics, or Bible verses; reviewing their journals, diaries, and photographs; having time limits to finish sections; getting the assistance of an editor; using a manual, book, or article to guide them; and reading it aloud on their own. Having a guide or coach or teacher was a given for this particular group and so was not included in the survey.
Emerging Patterns, Themes, and Metaphors
The discovery of patterns and themes in one’s life was among the most meaningful experiences of writing a spiritual autobiography. Some of these themes and patterns were realizations about God: God’s faithfulness, protection, presence. Some were realizations about themselves: their experience with developmental stages, their struggle with forgiveness and reconciliation, their acceptance of giftedness, calling, personality traits, their finding and trusting community. Some were seeing fundamental relational patterns with God: the experience of sin and grace, of being lost and being found, of seeking and finding, of suffering and finding solace or recovery, of slowly appreciating what one already has, of a dark night of the soul and emergence into walking by faith, of loneliness and the comfort of the Paraclete. Some were identifying formative factors: people, place, opportunity or constraint, ethnicity, religious tradition. Some noticed ways that God seemed to lead them: triple confirmation, inner peace, small things becoming very significant, push of adversity and pull of opportunity. Each pattern or theme was experienced in unique ways yet opened up to a sense of what it means to be human and of profound gratefulness and growing trust in God.
Related to patterns and themes was the emergence of metaphors or symbols that seemed to capture the essence or experience of one’s life. Some metaphors that were used were biblical (a tree planted by water, the parable of the four soils), others were drawn from Christian literature (a journey, a labyrinth, nurturing a garden), and still others were more idiosyncratic such as turning on the lights in a house, or orbits and orbiting. A metaphor can be overworked and then the reader gets the impression that the life is illustrating or fitting into the metaphor, but used judiciously, they can be both integrating and illuminating.
Engendering Growth and Positive Change
Subjects were asked to rate the degree to which writing their autobiography induced significant growth or positive change overall (“none, slightly, moderately, very, extremely”). The median was “very” much, and the mean was just below that; only one person indicated no change. James Dillon at the University of West Georgia asked the same question of 122 undergraduates who had composed their own spiritual autobiographies. From this group, 86% said writing a spiritual autobiography induced growth or positive change in their lives (Dillon 2011). This is the same percentage that our sample had when the moderate, very, and extreme extents were totalled. When “slight” is included in our total, the percentage becomes 95. Of the 105 students in Dillon’s study indicating they experienced growth or positive change, 36% said that the changes were among the most profound in their lives. Although this question was not in our survey, in our sample, nearly 50% rated the degree to which this exercise brought about significant growth or positive change as “very” high and another 20% rated it as doing so to an “extremely” high degree which would seem to indicate a portion having a similar experience to Dillon’s sample.
Resources
There are number of resources to guide the writing and study of autobiography including web sites, workshops, articles, and books by Elizabeth Andrew (2005), Robert Atkinson (1995), Erin Crider (2020), Carolly Erickson’s Arc of the Arrow: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography (1998), Richard Morgan (2002), Richard Peace (1998), Nan Phifer (2001), Daniel Taylor (2011), and Dan Wakefield (2012).
Conclusion
The authors’ experience in guiding numerous people in writing their spiritual autobiographies, in the context of college or seminary courses and church groups or retreats has led us to see that it provides the opportunity for a redemptive reckoning with faults and failures, an adaptive response to transition, vocational and avocational assessment, a heightened senses of God’s protection and enablement, and a source to inductively derive elements and dynamics of spirituality and spiritual formation. Students find it both enjoyable and challenging. They have a better experience when given sufficient support and time. The Doctor of Ministry graduates surveyed have affirmed the benefits of this assignment and provided useful insights into the experience of writing a spiritual autobiography.
Reference List
Andrew, Elizabeth. 2005. Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir. Boston, MA: Skinner House Books.
Atkinson, Robert. 1995. The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
Bilgen, Wendy Anne. 2022. “Looking to Autoethnography as Spiritual Practice.” Religions 13, no. 8: 699-709. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080699.
Crider, Erin. 2020. Writing Spiritual Autobiography: Discerning God in Your Personal Story, Grove Spirituality Series. Cambridge, England: Grove Books.
Dillon, James J. 2011. “Psychology and Spiritual Life Writing.” The Humanistic Psychologist 39, no. 2 (April-June): 137–153.
Dirghangi, Shrija, and Alexander Wong. 2022. “Narrative Identity Anchors the Self During Instability: The Structuring Effect of Cinematic Self.” Imagination, Cognition and Personality 42, no. 2 (2022/12/01): 167-191 SAGE Publ. doi:10.1177/02762366221104221.
Dunlop, William L. 2022. “The Cycle of Life and Story: Redemptive Autobiographical Narratives and Prosocial Behaviors.” Current Opinion in Psychology 43 (2022/02/01/): 213-218. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.07.019.
Erickson, Carolly. 1998. Arc of the Arrow: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography. New York, NY: Pocket Books.
Haight, Barbara K., and Barrett S. Haight. 2007. The Handbook of Structured Life Review. Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press.
Lamers, Sanne M.A., Ernst T. Bohlmeijer, Jojanneke Korte, and Gerben J. Westerhof. 2014. “The Efficacy of Life-Review as Online-Guided Self-Help for Adults: A Randomized Trial.” The Journals of Gerontology: Series B 70, no. 1: 24-34. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbu030.
McAdams, Dan P., and Kate C. McLean. 2013. “Narrative Identity.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 22, no. 3: 233-238 [Association for Psychological Science, Sage Publications, Inc.].
Morgan, Richard Lyon. 2002. Remembering Your Story: Creating Your Own Spiritual Autobiography: Leader’s Guide. Rev. ed. Nashville, TN: Upper Room Books.
Patterson, Richard B. 2002. Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography. Allen, TX: Thomas More Pub.
Phifer, Nan. 2001. Memoirs of the Soul: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography. Walking Stick Press.
Peace, Richard. 1998. Spiritual Autobiography: Discovering and Sharing Your Spiritual Story. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.
Progoff, Ira. 1975. At a Journal Workshop. New York, NY: Dialogue House Library. The Journal of Christian Ministry (JCM), Vol 14, March 2025 9.
Showalter, Shirley. 2023. “Why Is There a Surge in Memoir? Is It a Good Thing?” Jane Friedman. https://janefriedman.com/memoir-trend/.
Staude, John-Raphael. 2005. “Autobiography as a Spiritual Practice.” Journal of Gerontological Social Work 45, no. 3: 249-269.
Sutton, Anna. 2024. “Memory Recall Can Increase Authenticity and Engagement: Understanding the Role of Work Context and Memory Function in Autobiographical Memories.” Discover Psychology 4, no. 1 (2024/07/22): 86. doi:10.1007/s44202-024-00198-3.
Taylor, Daniel. 2011. Creating a Spiritual Legacy: How to Share Your Stories, Values, and Wisdom. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.
The Association of Theological Schools. 2020. “Standards of Accreditation.” In The Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools. Pittsburgh, PA: ATS. https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation.pdf.
Thomsen, Dorthe Kirkegaard, Stefan Pfattheicher, and William L. Dunlop. 2021. “Authoring Esteem: Writing About Vicarious and Personal Life Story Chapters Boosts State Self-Esteem.” Personality Science 2, no. 1: e7017. doi:10.5964/ps.7017.
Wakefield, Dan. 2012. The Story of Your Life: Writing a Spiritual Autobiography: A Step-by-Step Process to Exploring Your Past and Understanding Your Present. Center Ossipee, NH:Beech River Books. Original publication: Originally published 1990. Reprint, Kindle.
Warner, Brooke. 2020. “Memoir, Uninterrupted.” Publishers Weekly. Epub Jan 02, 2020. https://writeyourmemoirinsixmonths.com/memoir-uninterrupted/.
Westerhof, Gerben J., Ernst T. Bohlmeijer, Ilse M. J. van Beljouw, and Anne Margriet Pot. 2010. “Improvement in Personal Meaning Mediates the Effects of a Life Review Intervention on Depressive Symptoms in a Randomized Controlled Trial.” Gerontologist 50, no. 4 (Aug): 541-9. doi:10.1093/geront/gnp168.