View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Kosmopolis University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) Dissertations School of Social Policy and Practice Spring 2015 Spiritual Development and Baccalaureate Social Work Education: One Historic Program Lloyd Gestoso University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2 Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Gestoso, Lloyd, "Spiritual Development and Baccalaureate Social Work Education: One Historic Program" (2015). Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) Dissertations. 67. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/67 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/67 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Spiritual Development and Baccalaureate Social Work Education: One Historic Program Abstract Religion has been a universal dynamic which has unified, divided, and motivated human beings from the beginning of time. The profession of social work was birthed from the momentum produced from the impact of religion on society in the United States, propelling volunteers to pursue societal change and to better humanity. Transforming historical trends in the political, psychological, and theological realms moved the profession of social work from the auspice of the religious to the secular and from the volunteer to the professional. Social work education developed out of religious motivation and soon divided into baccalaureate and masters level education with a very clear secular tone. In response, a historic Bible college in the evangelical Christian tradition pursues “Bible Social Work” and is the first school of its kind to gain baccalaureate social work accreditation.