Fuller Symposium on the Integration of Psychology and Theology, better known as the Integration Symposium, is an annual lectureship hosted every February by the School of Psychology, featuring a nationally recognized scholar who focuses on a single integrative issue. Topics have ranged from aging and dementia to what evangelicals can learn from Jung. The symposium is an academic gathering place in which integration can be tackled on an intellectual level, and it incorporates participants and panel respondents from all three schools of the seminary (School of Psychology, School of Theology, and School of Intercultural Studies). Students and community members alike are given the opportunity to learn from scholars in many fields concerning the various intersections of theology and psychology.

Recent topics at the Integration Symposium have included the following:

• 2023: "Supernatural Attributions and Spiritual Struggles," with Julie Exline
• 2022: "The Science and Spirit of Gratefulness: 25 Years of Progress,” with Robert Emmons
• 2021: "A Christian Approach to Counseling and Psychotherapy: Christ-Centered, Biblically Based, and Spirit-Filled,” with Siang-Yang Tan
• 2020: "Holistic Healing and Wellness: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” with Thema Bryant-Davis
• 2019: "A Psychology of the Ordinary: Humility, Grace, and Gratitude as Religious Inflections of the World" with Peter C. Hill
• 2018: "Integration & Integrity: The Christian Therapist as Peacemaker" with Dr. Cameron Lee
• 2017: "Relational Integration" with Dr. Steve Sandage
• 2016: "Kindling God: How People Experience the Divine" with Dr. Tanya Luhrmann
• 2015: "Courageous Leadership in Christian Sex/Gender Conflicts" with Dr. Jenell Williams Paris
• 2014: " A Time to Live and a Time to Die: The Slavery of Death," and " The One Who Loves Moves from Death to Life" (School of Psychology 50th Anniversary Celebration) with Dr. Richard Beck
• 2013: " Speak to Me, That I May Hear" with Dr. Marie Hoffman
• 2012: " From Science to Service in Schizophrenia: Within Our Reach or Beyond Our Grasp?", featuring numerous keynote speakers
• 2011: " Reflections on God and Mental Illness" with Dr. Stanley Hauerwas
• 2010: " Psychology Of, With and For the Poor" with John Fantuzzo, Charles Howard, and Pilar Cruz-Ramos
• 2009: "The Pearls and the Perils: Practicing Psychology in Mission and Aid Settings" with Dr. Kelly O'Donnell
• 2008: "Religion and Therapy: Future Directions" with Dr. Mark R. McMinn, Dr. Keith G. Meador, Dr. Marsha Linehan, Dr. William R. Miller, and Dr. F. LeRon Shults
• 2007: "Reviving Christian Psychology" with Dr. Ellen T. Charry
• 2006: "Redeeming Difficult Hope: Working with Diverse Populations" with Dr. Julian Rappaport
• 2005: "Science, Faith, and Human Nature: Reconciling Neuropsychology and Christian Theology" with Dr. Warren S. Brown
• 2004: "The Living God and Our Living Psyche: C.G. Jung's Psychology and Christian Faith" with Dr. Ann Ulanov
• 2003: "A Radical Proposal for Integration: Psychology in Dialogue with the Anabaptist Tradition" with Dr. Nancey Murphy
• 2002: "Spirituality in the Treatment of African American Families" with Dr. Nancy Boyd-Franklin and Dr. Archie Smith
• 2001: Issues in Aging and Dementia, with Dr. Stephen Post
• 2000: Everett Worthington. “The Virus of Forgiveness”
• 1999: David G. Myers. “The Pursuit of Personal and Social Well-Being”
• 1998: James Fowler. “Faith Development, Practical Theology, and Clinical Practice”
• 1997: David Larson. “The Forgotten Factor in Mental and Physical Health: What Does the Research Show?”
• 1996: H. Newton Malony. “Brainwashing and Religion.”
• 1995: Malcolm A. Jeeves. “Psychology and Christianity: Partners in Understanding Human Nature.”
• 1994: Sidney Callahan. “Christ and the Unconscious.”
• 1993: Nicholas Woltersdorff. “Living with Grief.”
• 1992: Don S. Browning. “Love in America: Practical Theology and Family Decline.”
• 1991: L. Rebecca Propst. “Christian Contributions to the Treatment of Clinical Depression.”
• 1990: Paul Vitz. “The Importance of Narratives for Christian Psychology.”
• 1989: Lucy Bregman. “Death in the Midst of Life.”
• 1988: C. Stephen Evans. “Psychology as a Human Science and the Prospects for Christian Psychology.”
• 1987: Donald M. Mackay. (presented by Warren S. Brown after Dr. Mackay's death) “The Pastor and the Brain Scientist”
• 1986: Alvin C. Dueck. “Ethical Contexts of Healing.”
• 1985: Morton Kelsey. “Christianity as Psychology: Philosophy, Psychology, and Christian Faith.”
• 1984: Vernon C. Grounds. “Unselfing the Self: A Pivotal Problem in Psychology and Theology.”
• 1983: David O. Moberg. “Wholistic Christianity: Sociological Interpretations.”
• 1982: Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. “The Sorcerer's Apprentice: A Christian Looks at the Changing Face of Psychology.”
• 1981: J. Harold Ellens. “God's Grace and Human Health.”
• 1980: John G. Finch. “Can Psychology be Christian?”
• 1979: David G. Myers. “Our Human Condition.”
• 1978: Gary Collins. “Psychology and Theology: Prospects for Integration.”
• 1977: Orlo Strunk. “Personal Religious Values: A Psycho-Theological Understanding.”
• 1976: Stanley R. Hopper. “Psyche, Logos, and the Human Spirit.”
• 1975: William P. Wilson. “Christian Nurture, Life Adjustment, and Mental Disease.”
• 1974: Orville S. Walters. “Christian Psychotherapy and the Legacy of Freud.”
• 1973: Richard L. Gorsuch. “The Nature of Man: A Social Psychological Perspective.”
• 1972: Thomas C. Oden. “The Human Potential and the Evangelical Hope.”
• 1971: Walter H. Clark. “Religious Experience: Its Nature and Function in the Human Psyche.”

For more information about upcoming symposia, please contact:

Dr. Brad Strawn
The Evelyn and Frank Freed Professor
of the Integration of Psychology and Theology
Fuller Graduate School of Psychology
Phone: 626-584-5330
E-mail: bradstrawn@fuller.edu

PUBLICATIONS

Faculty and students in the School of Psychology are engaged in ongoing research and writing projects related to the integration of psychology and theology. For an introduction to the flavor of our research, see the list of integrative faculty publications below, or click on the Sorenson and Travis Award tabs (above) for award-winning integrative papers by our students.

Recent Integrative Publications by Fuller Faculty

Alexis D. Abernethy

“Intrinsic Religiousness as a Mediator Between Fatalism and Cancer-Specific Fear: Clarifying the Role of Fear in Prostate Cancer Screening,” in Journal of Religion and Health (coauthor, 2014).

“A Spiritually Informed Approach to Group Psychotherapy,” chapter in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Group Psychotherapy (2012).

Worship that Changes Lives: Multidisciplinary and Congregational Perspectives on Spiritual Transformation (editor, 2008).

Jack O. Balswick (retired)

The Family: A Christian Perspective on the Contemporary Home, 4^th ed. (coauthor, 2014).

The Reciprocating Self: Human Development in Theological Perspective (coauthor, 2005).

Men at the Crossroads: Beyond Traditional Roles and Modern Options (1992).

Judith K. Balswick (retired)

Authentic Sexuality: An Integrated Christian Approach (coauthor, 2008)

A Model for Marriage: Covenant, Grace, Empowering, and Intimacy (2006).

Relationship Empowerment Parenting: Building Formative and Fulfilling Relationships with Your Children(coauthor, 2003).

Justin L. Barrett

“Evolutionary Byproducts and Imago Dei,” chapter in The Emergence of Personhood: A Quantum Leap? (coauthor, in press).

“Should CSR Give Atheists Assurance? On Beer-Goggles, BFFs, and Skepticism Regarding Religious Beliefs,” in The Monist (coauthor, 2013).

“Longitudinal Study of Religious and Spiritual Transformation in Adolescents Attending Young Life Summer Camp: Assessing the Epistemic, Intrapsychic, and Moral Sociability Functions of Conversion,” in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (coauthor, 2014).

Jeffrey P. Bjorck

“Religious Support and Psychological Functioning in Korean American Protestant Christians,” in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (coauthor, 2014).

“The Multi-Faith Religious Support Scale: Validation with a Sample of Muslim Women,” in Journal of Muslim Mental Health (coauthor, 2011).

“The Adolescent Religious Coping Scale: Development, Validation, and Cross-Validation,” in Journal of Child and Family Studies (coauthor, 2010).

Warren S. Brown

The Physical Nature of Christian Life: Neuroscience, Psychology and the Church. (coauthor, 2012).

“Living with Evangelical Paradoxes,” in Religion, Brain, and Behavior (coauthor, 2013).

“Embodied Cognition, Character Formation, and Virtue,” in Zygon (coauthor, 2013).

Alvin Dueck

“Culture, Language, and Integration,” in Journal of Psychology and Theology (2012).

“Community, Spiritual Traditions, and Disasters in Chinese Society,” in Pastoral Psychology (coauthor, 2012).

“On Psychologizing the Other: Plato, Pith Helmets, and Pathology,” chapter in Psychology and the Other: A Dialogue at the Crossroad of an Emerging Field (in press).

Richard L. Gorsuch (retired)

“On the Limits of Scientific Investigation: Miracles and Intercessory Prayer,” chapter in Miracles: God, Science, and Psychology in the Paranormal (2008).

“The Pyramids of Sciences and of Humanities,” in American Behavioral Scientist (2002).

Integrating Psychology and Spirituality? (2002).

Pamela Ebstyne King

“Prevention and the Promotion of Thriving in Children and Adolescents,” chapter in Christianity and Developmental Psychopathology: Theory and Application for Working with Youth (coauthor, 2014).

“Adolescent Spiritual Exemplars: Exploring Adolescent Spirituality Among Diverse Youth,” in Journal of Adolescent Research (coauthor, 2014).

“Spiritually Oriented Interventions in Developmental Context,” chapter in Spiritually Oriented Interventions in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy (coauthor, 2013).

Cameron Lee

Why Psychology Needs Theology: A Radical-Reformation Perspective (coeditor, 2005).

H. Newton Malony (retired)

Toward a Christian Clinical Psychology: The Contribution of H. Newton Malony, edited by L. Hoffman (2011).

Christian Counseling: An Introduction (coauthor, 2007).

Whatever Happened to the Soul? Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature (coauthor, 1998).

Sarah A. Schnitker

“Longitudinal Study of Religious and Spiritual Transformation in Adolescents Attending Young Life Summer Camp: Assessing the Epistemic, Intrapsychic, and Moral Sociability Functions of Conversion,” in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (coauthor, 2014).

“Virtue Development Following Spiritual Transformation in Adolescents Attending Evangelistic Summer Camp,” inJournal of Psychology and Christianity (coauthor, 2014).

“Spiritual Striving and Seeking the Sacred: Religion as Meaningful Goal-Directed Behavior,” in International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (coauthor, 2013).

Brad D. Strawn

Spiritual Diversity in Psychotherapy: Engaging the Sacred in Clinical Practice (coeditor, 2022)

Christianity & Psychoanalysis: A New Conversation (coeditor, 2014).

The Physical Nature of Christian Life: Neuroscience, Psychology and the Church (coauthor, 2012).

Wesleyan Theology and Social Science: The Dance of Practical Divinity and Discovery, (coeditor, 2010).

Siang-Yang Tan

Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Christian Perspective (2011).

“Addressing Religion and Spirituality from a Cognitive Behavioral Perspective,” chapter in APA Handbooks in Psychology: APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality, Vol. 2 (2013).

“Lay Christian Counseling for General Psychological Problems,” chapter in Evidence-based practices for Christian counseling and psychotherapy (2013).

Randall Lehmann Sorenson Scholarship

This scholarship honors Fuller School of Psychology graduate, Randall Lehmann Sorenson (1954–2005) who modeled for the evangelical community creative integration of faith convictions and psychological practice. This scholarship will be awarded to the student submitting the best essay written on the integration of theology and psychology. The scholarship amount is $500.

Dr. Sorenson's Legacy

Dr. Randall Lehmann Sorenson, 51, Rosemead Professor of Psychology and licensed psychologist, died Friday morning, January 21, 2005. Randy was a brilliant scholar and clinician, a much loved colleague, teacher, and mentor, a devoted husband and father, and a faithful Christian. Randy had been an annually contracted, part-time faculty member in Rosemead for 13 years and served as a clinical supervisor in the Biola Counseling Center for 8 years prior. So Randy had been an integral partof the Rosemead graduate training program for over 20 years. Due to his part-time appointment, Randy may not be known by very many within the wider Biola community; however, he presented a very strong voice for integration of faith and field across the psychological scholarly community.

Randy held both a PhD in clinical psychology from Fuller and a PsyD in psychoanalysis from the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Besides his faculty position at Rosemead, Randy also taught forthe Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and carried a thriving privatepractice through Doulos, Inc. His vita includes over 35 publications in journals such as Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Journal of Psychology and Christianity, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, and Journal of Psychology and Theology; about 50scholarly presentations at conferences of the American Psychological Association and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, as well as invited speaking engagements across the country. Randy’s most recent book, Minding Spirituality, was published in 2004 by theAnalytic Press.

Randy’s instruction and mentorship were eagerly sought by Rosemead graduate students. He engaged both mind and heart and extended students’ work into the scholarly arena via co-authorship in both publications and conference presentations. Randy’s commitment to Christ and to excellent scholarship in glory to God resonated throughout his interactions with us and with many others in the psychological community. His warm and engaging personality in classes as well as within the faculty will be sorely missed. (From http://www.rosemead.edu/news_events/)

PAPERS AWARDED THE SORENSON SCHOLARSHIP

The authors of the following papers were given the Sorenson award for excellence in integrative work. To contact the author or to see a copy of the text, follow the links below.

2018

• Morgan Sorenson, "Towards An Integrative and Intersubjective Understanding of Remembrance"

2017

• Andrea Irene Kauffman Canales, "Why We Need More Angry Christian Clinicians"

2015

• Nathaniel Strenger, "A Tale of Two Constructs: How Relational Psychoanalysis Renews Understandings of Religiousness and Spirituality"

2014

• Ashley Wilkins, We Are How We Eat

2013

• Kyle Isaacson, Integrity, Imagination, and the Christian Therapist

2012

• Chloe Teller, Welcoming the Christian Story in Narrative Therapy with Children

2011

• Lisa Finlay, Death Anxiety and the Self-Transcending Drama: Considerations for Christian Therapists

2010

• Darcy Miller, Reformulating God the Mother: Mutual Recognition, the Divine and Therapeutic Applications

2009

• Maria Eleanor Renee. C. Cutiongco, Becoming a Filipino Christian Psychologist: Reclaiming Indigenous Concepts of Faith and Spirituality

2008

• Martin Hsia, (Contact author for copy) Dím Sūm: “ABC” Integration of Christianity and Psychology

2007

• Elizabeth Vogt, Spirituality in the Midst of Disability

Lee Edward Travis Scholarship

This award was established in 1974 in honor of Lee Edward Travis, the founding dean of Fuller's School of Psychology. Awards are given annually to students who have written excellent integrative papers in theoretical or experimental categories, and whose writing demonstrates both psychological and theological depth. Depending on the papers submitted, the award may be given to a single winner or split between entrants. The scholarship amount is $1000.

Dr. Travis' Legacy

Lee Edward Travis (1896-1987) became the Founding Dean of the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in 1965. In 1998, the Travis Research Institute (TRI) committed itself to his vision of fostering interdisciplinary research. Travis was a brilliant, pioneering experimental physiological psychologist, speech pathologist, and clinical psychologist, with distinguished careers at the University of Iowa (1924-1938) and University of Southern California (1938-1965) prior to his deanship at Fuller (1965-1975). His best known research was in the area of stuttering. He was also among the first researchers in the USA to use electrophysiological measures for studying the brain.

Travis was a founding member of the American Speech and Hearing Association and a past-president and was instrumental in setting up one of the first speech-pathology programs in the country located at the University of Iowa. He authored and edited two important handbooks, the Handbook of Speech Pathology (1959) and theHandbook of Speech Pathology and Audiology(1971).

At Fuller, Travis was responsible for founding and establishing the Graduate School of Psychology and training for the PhD in Clinical Psychology. Under his leadership, the program was approved by the American Psychological Association. On his retirement an auditorium was named after him and subsequently the Travis Research Institute at Fuller was named in his honor. The Travis Research Institute is the embodiment of his legacy of empirical research and scholarship in psychology.

Complete details of his honors, achievements, students, publications and history can be found in a Festschrift volume entitled, Psychologist Pro Tem: In Honor of the 80th Birthday of Lee Edward Travis, edited by D. F. Tweedie, Jr., and P. W. Clement (USC Press, 1978). (From www.travisinstitute.org)

PAPERS AWARDED THE TRAVIS SCHOLARSHIP:

The authors of the following papers were given the Travis Award for excellence in integrative work. To see a copy of the text, follow the links below.

2015

• Matthew Jarvinen, Purification of the Heart: Christian Character Formation Within a Wesleyan Anthropology

2014

• Matthew Jarvinen, Self-Regulation and Christian Formation

2013

• Kris Thomas, A Descent into Madness: Theoretical and Clinical Reflections on Schizophrenia and Implications for Christian Theology and Practice

2012 (poster awards)

• Jesse Malott, Tiffany Martinez, Charlotte Sandy, & Joseph Currier: Bereavement, Religion, and Posttraumatic Growth: A Matched Control Group Investigation
• Barbod Salimi, Ka Chi Grace Liu, & Al Dueck: Culture, Community, and Schizophrenia
• Jessica Foss & Sarah Schnitker: Spiritual Strivings, Patience, and Well-Being in a Religious Adolescent Sample

2011

• Kris Thomas, Metaphor and Story in Cognitive Decline: Reflections on Israel's Narrative Self-Identity in Exile as Meaningful in the Care of Persons with Dementia

2010

• Christopher Keiper, Surface Integration: Current Interpretive Problems and a Suggested Hermeneutical Model for Approaching Christian Psychology

2009

• Lisa Finlay, The Therapist’s Hope for Healing

2008

• Joseph Barsuglia, Holy Saturday in Existential Psychology: Prolegomenary Integration of Von Balthasar’s Theology of Christ’s Descent Into Hell with Meaning Making in Logotherapy in a Christian Context
• David Goodman, Frodo, Gyges, and The Lord of the Self

2007

• Jill Alonzo, Jesus’ Table Fellowship as a Model for Therapy

2006

• Stephen Callender, Psychotherapy: The New Moral Tradition in America
• Rachel Sing-Kiat Ting, Integration within Chinese Cultures: Wind and Sun

2005

• Brian Becker, Psychotherapy as Transubstantiation: A Postmodern Interpretation of the Holy Eucharist as a Subversive Image to Undermine Individualism and Reductionism in Western Culture and Modern Psychology
• Nancy Liu, Mindfulness: A Christian Critique

2004

• Diane Fruchter, Religious Problem-Solving as Pragmatic Theology: Reflecting on the Religious Problem-Solving Scale
• Gabrielle Taylor, Transformation: Facing the Anxiety of Being

2003

• Scott Garrels, Imitation, Mirror Neurons, & Mimetic Desire: Generative Mechanisms in Religious, Cultural, and Psychosocial Structures
• Gabrielle Taylor, Psychoanalysis and the Church: Implications for Transformation

2002

• Greg Reger & Steven Rogers, Diagnostic Differences in Religious Coping Among the Persistently Mentally Ill
• Steven Rogers, Object Relations and Job: Suffering as a Parallel Process Toward Individuation

2001

• Steven Rogers, The Parent-Child Relationship as an Archetype for the Relationship Between God and Humanity in Genesis
• Daryl Schrock, Where is God: A Reflection on Trauma and Theology