Spiritual Capital

Spiritual capital is a concept that involves the quantification of the value to individuals, groups and society of spiritual, moral or psychological beliefs and practices. Proponents liken it to other forms of capital, including material capital (or financial capital), intellectual capital, and social capital. Some scholars such as Robert Barro see spiritual capital as simply another term for the power and influence generated by religion belief and practice, whilst others, such as Danah Zohar define it more broadly as the value of personal, social or cultural beliefs and meanings that stimulate creativity, encourage moral behaviour and motivate individuals. It is often connected to the related concept of spiritual intelligence. Moreover, Samuel Rima has developed a conceptual model of spiritual capital that postulates five major elements of spiritual capital theory; metaphysical resources, spiritual capital formation, transformation, spiritual capital investment, and return on investment.

Spiritual capital, when used in research, can be operationalized through various measures that measure an individual's religious and spiritual inclinations, such as frequency of church attendance and prayer, as well as one's belief in the transcendence. These kinds of measures can be found in the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality (book).

Spiritual capital has also be used by many scholars to understand movements such as business as a mission, kingdom business and workplace spirituality.