The Templeton Foundation supports project developed by Dr. Al Dueck
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12/10/09
Fuller has been awarded a grant of $346,832 from the John Templeton Foundation for a pilot project called “Advancing the Scholarship of Psychology, Science, and Religion in Chinese Society.”
“I am deeply grateful for this grant—and vote of confidence—from the Templeton Foundation,” President Richard J. Mouw remarked. “With the help of this grant, Fuller will be able to partner in unprecedented ways with our counterparts in China to explore the healthy contributions of psychology and religion in both China and America.”
Dr. Alvin Dueck, the Evelyn and Frank Freed Professor of the Integration of Psychology and Theology at Fuller, developed the proposal to Templeton and will serve as co-director of the project alongside Dr. Han Buxin, professor of psychology at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing.
Dr. Dueck has a strong commitment to collaborating with Chinese psychologists in research on religion to facilitate mutual learning about religiosity. He has already established extensive networks and partnerships in China—with churches, seminaries and universities, government-related agencies and others—to help address pastoral care and counseling issues.
This two-year project will help develop well-trained psychologists of religion in China. The project also aims to create a formal Chinese Association of Psychologists of Religion in China, to share new ideas in the area of psychology of religion and to build on existing partnerships between select universities in China and Fuller’s School of Psychology.
Additionally, the project will expand the psychology of religion collections in the libraries of key Chinese universities and will publish essays emerging from collaborations between Chinese and Western psychologists.
Further, there will be extensive focus on collaborative cross-cultural research in China and the West—addressing issues such as forgiveness, reconciliation, suicide and religious social support, and developing Chinese instruments for measuring spirituality.
Dr. Mouw pointed out that the grant “helps address a need that has been expressed many times to Fuller Seminary by our Chinese friends.” Fuller has been involved for several years in mutual learning visits, conversations, and exchanges with Chinese leaders from churches, seminaries, universities, and government-related agencies. These leaders have communicated an urgency to address growing psychological needs in China, both in church congregations and the larger society. Such needs include the increasing divorce rate in China; the high suicide rate among young people and others overwhelmed by stress and pressures; financial problems caused by the rapidly changing economic system; and dramatic changes in elder care, intergenerational communication, and family structures.
The John Templeton Foundation was established in 1987 by the pioneer global investor and philanthropist Sir John Marks Templeton. The Templeton Foundation’s mission is to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for research on what scientists and philosophers call the "Big Questions." This vision is derived from Templeton's belief that rigorous research and cutting-edge science are at the heart of human progress. The Foundation distributes approximately $70 million in annual grants.