Authorsâ Biographies
Tania ap Siôn
is Associate Professor in Education and the Social Significance of Religion at the University of Warwick within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, Centre for Education Studies. She is also Executive Director of the St Maryâs Centre in Wales, which is concerned with supporting research-based reflective practice in faith-related practitioner contexts. Taniaâs interests and publications include research relating to prayer and sacred space, religious experience, attitudes towards religious diversity, Christian education, Religious Education, religion and psychological type theory, cathedral studies, rural ministry, and clergy studies.
Amanda (Mandy) Dawn Aspland
completed her PhD in 2016 at York St John University. She currently works as Lay Training Officer for the Anglican Diocese of Leeds. A varied career has seen her work as temporary lecturer/researcher at The University of Leeds in the department of Applied Mathematics and as storyteller and puppeteer for a primary school-based Christian Charity. More recently she has been Research Fellow (in the Planning Team) and Project Evaluator (Vice-Chancellorâs Office) at the University of Huddersfield and she had a brief spell as Interim Anglican Chaplain at the same institution before taking up her current role in April 2018.
Dharma Arunachalam
is Associate Professor of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne. Trained in social demography, his research focuses on population dynamics in Australia, social cohesion and identity in Australia, international migration, housing, and fertility and partnering. He has recently co-edited a volume on Creating Social Cohesion in an Interdependent World: Experiences of Australia and Japan (Palgrave Macmillan 2016) and is currently working on a monograph on Indians in Australia.
Joel Gruneau Brulin
is a clinical psychologist and doctoral student at Stockholm University, Sweden. His interests include both attachment theory and psychology of religion and spirituality. His dissertation project explores the psychology of the welfare state.
Zhuo Job Chen
is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Clemson University. His major interests include the spiritual relationship between gurus and their disciples, spiritual connections with nature, and perception of sacredness among religious and lay Tibetan people.
Victor Counted
is a psychologist in the Religion and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University, Australia. His major interests include the role of relational spirituality and people-place experiences in health, youth, and migration contexts.
Giuseppe Crea
Ph.D., is a psychologist and psychotherapist, and Professor of Theory and Techniques of Test at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. He received his Ph.D. from the University in Rome and his qualification as practitioner in psychotherapy from the Istituto di Formazione e Ricerca per Educatori e Psicoterapeuti [Institute of Training and Research for Educators and Psychotherapists] of the University of Rome. He has recently published: Crescere con lâAnalisi Transazionale (2013), Psicologia spiritualità e benessere vocazionale (2014), Il segreto della felicità nella vita consacrata (2015), Tonache ferite. Forme di disagio nella vita religiosa e sacerdotale (2015), and Tutta la gioia che mi hai messo nel cuore (2017).
Robert Dixon
was the Foundation Director of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Pastoral Research Office from 1996 to 2016. He has a PhD in sociology from Monash University as well as degrees in science, theology and education. He is an Honorary Professor of Australian Catholic University and an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Divinity. His most recent publications are âThe Demography of Australiaâs Catholics: Method and Applicationsâ in Yearbook of International Religious Demography 2017 (Brill) and âPost-secularity and Australian Catholicsâ in Anthony Maher (ed), Faith and the Political in the Post-Secular Age (Coventry Press, 2018).
Martin Dowson
is Director of Academic Development at Excelsia College, Sydney having previously held senior leadership positions at the Sydney College of Divinity (as Professor of Pastoral Theology), and the Australian College of Ministries (as Director of Higher Education). His most recent research encompasses educational psychology, psychological measurement, and the psychology of religion.
Deepti B. Duggi
is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Psychology Department of Karnatak University in Dharwad, India. Her research interests are forgiveness, religion, and relationships.
Leslie J. Francis
Ph.D., is Professor of Religions and Education at the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit at the University of Warwick, Coventry, England. He received his Ph.D. and Sc.D. from the University of Cambridge, his D.D. from the University of Oxford, and his D.Litt. from the University of Wales. His recent books include Preaching with All Our Souls (2008), The Public Significance of Religion (2011), Ordained Local Ministry in the Church of England (2012), Exploring Ordinary Theology (2013), Anglican Cathedrals in Modern Life: The science of cathedral studies (2015), The Empirical Science of Religious Education (2016), and Lessons in Spiritual Development (2017).
Nima Ghorbani
is a full Professor of Psychology at the University of Tehran in Iran. His research interests center on the cross-cultural religious and spiritual self and experience, integrative self-knowledge and self-regulation, and Dynamic Psychotherapy.
Pehr Granqvist
is Professor of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden. His major interests include developmental psychology and theory and research in all aspects of attachment.
Gill Hall
completed a doctorate recently at Glyndwr University, Wrexham. Her research interests are Celtic Christianity and psychological type. She is a retired Church of England priest.
Douglas Hall
has an MSc in Business Management. Following retirement as a director of a small market research company carrying out commercial research, he became involved in analysing data from several quantitative surveys looking at the relationship between psychological type and interest in Celtic Christianity.
Nicole Hancock
is a research assistant at NCLS Research. She holds a Bachelorâs degree in arts from the University of Sydney, with majors in psychology and English. Some of her involvement in research has been in the areas of new initiatives in church life, and volunteering among church attenders. Her research interests also include the community impact of churches and attender wellbeing.
Magnhild Høie
is a psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Agder, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Grimstad, Norway. Her research interests include psychosocial challenges in substance-abuse affected families and adolescence (e.g. substance use and drop-out from school).
Ralph W. Hood Jr.
is Professor of Psychology and LeRoy A. Martin Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His major interests include the study of mysticism and indigenous Appalachian religious groups that handle serpents.
Shanmukh Vasant Kamble
is Professor of Psychology at Karnatak University in Dharwad India. His research interests are religion, emotions, and bioethics.
Thomas Lindgren
is a Professor in the Department of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Umeå University, Sweden. His major research interest include biographical studies of non-violence and the social psychology of radicalization.
Ronald J. Morris
is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of at Tennessee at Chattanooga. His research interests are quantitative assessment of research linking personality and the psychology of religion.
Miriam Pepper
is a researcher at NCLS Research and Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University. She received her PhD from the University of Surrey, UK. She researches a range of areas in the social scientific study of religion, including congregational studies, Christianity and multiculturalism, contemporary Australian spirituality and views and activities related to issues of social service and justice. Her particular interests concern the intersections between religion and environmentalism.
Ruth Powell
is Director of NCLS Research and Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University. She has been a part of the NCLS Research team since 1991, and involved in each of the five-yearly Australian National Church Life Surveys, which forms the basis of one of the largest, most comprehensive databases on church life of its kind in the world. Ruthâs own primary interests lie in assisting churches to reflect on their interaction with the wider Australian community. As well as church health, and tracking changes in church life over time, she has worked on differences between age cohorts, and potential generational influences over time. Some of the publications she has co-authored include Winds of Change, Views from the Pews, Shaping a Future, Taking Stock, Build My Church, Mission under the Microscope and Enriching Church Life.
Brooke M. Ruf
M.A., is a Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at the Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University in La Mirada, CA. She holds a Masterâs degree in Clinical Psychology and her current research focuses on the relationship between engagement with nature, religion/spirituality, and stewarding oneâs environment.
Sam Sterland
is a senior researcher with NCLS Research in Sydney, Australia. He has degrees in science and psychology. His research interests draw from work on church vitality and organisational health, and the psychology of religion. He is particularly interested in exploring new forms of analysis and measures for church vitality resilience factors related to sustainable leadership.
Fazlollaha Tavakoli
is a doctoral candidate in Psychology at the University of Tehran. His research interests are the psychology of religion and spirituality and post-traumatic growth.
John-KÃ¥re Vederhus
is a nurse specialist and researcher in the addiction treatment field. His thesis was based on a Twelve step facilitation study on the detoxification ward at Sørlandet Hospital, Kristiansand, Norway. He is currently involved in several research projects closely related to the clinical practice at the hospital.
David C. Wang
Th.M. (Regent College), Ph.D. (University of Houston) is Associate Professor of Psychology at the Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University in La Mirada, CA, and Editor of the Journal of Psychology and Theology. His research focuses on trauma/traumatic stress, spiritual and character development, mindfulness, and various topics related to multicultural psychology and social justice.
P. J. Watson
is UTC Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His research interests center on the psychology of religion and on personality.
John K. Williams
(Ph.D. in Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 1998) is Associate Professor of Psychology at the Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University, California. Dr. Williamsâ research interests focus on implicit and neuropsychological (ERP) measures with respect to social cognitive and religious issues.