When: September 17 – 18, 2010

Where: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY

Legacy Hotel
2825 Lexington Road
Louisville, KY 40280
Ph: (877) 444-7287
http://legacy.sbts.edu/
Room Rate: $59 + tax per night
Be sure to mention the special promotion code, "SCP".

The notion of human agency-the capacity of humans to be a cause of their own actions-was rejected as a legitimate topic within modern psychology for most of the 20th century (while work on the concept continued in philosophy and theology). However, times have changed, and human agency has returned to psychology – though not without vigorous debate, because of the current dominance of naturalism and the evidence that neuropsychology and socialization are fundamentally related to human action. Historically, Christianity has assumed some form of human agency in their understanding of human beings, and offered a distinctive approach to human and Christian agency, related to God’s involvement. Eight papers on these and related topics will be presented by a diverse group of scholars, with respondents.

Because of the incredible accumulation of knowledge and specialization over the last 100 years, knowledge about human beings today is fragmented and lacks an organizing framework. The Society believes that the various Christian traditions together provide a richly diverse but ultimately unifying paradigm for such knowledge and that there is value in bringing together Christian scholars in different disciplines and from different Christian traditions who are working on the subject of human beings in order to advance a fuller and more unified and holistic understanding within a Christian worldview framework.

Presenters

C. Stephen Evans, “What Does it Mean To Be a Bodily Soul?”

University Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities, Baylor University.
Author of Kierkegaard: An Introduction; Soren Kierkegaard’s Christian Psychology; Philosophy of Religion

Peter Hampson, “‘By Knowledge and by Love’: The Integrative Role of Habitus in Christian Psychology, and Some
Applications.”

Professor of Psychology and Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology, Head of the Department of
Psychology, University of the West of England

William Hathaway, “Responsibility & Agency: Similarities in Biblical Thought, Common Law, and Folk
Psychology.”

Professor of Psychology and Dean of the School of Psychology and Counseling, Regent
University, 2008 President of APA’s Division 36 – Psychology of Religion

Eric Jones, “Intentional Slavery: Social Influence, Automaticity, and Free Will”

Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Regent University

Michael Pakaluk, “Weakness of Will: If the Will is Free, How Can It Be Coerced?”

Professor and Director of Integrative Research, Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Author of Aristotle’s
Nichomachean Ethics; Aristotelian Theory of Action and Moral Psychology (in progress)

Andrew Purves, “Vicarious Agency: The Humanity of God in Our Place”

Professor of Reformed Theology, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Author of Pastoral Theology in the Classical
Tradition and Reconstructing Pastoral Theology: A Christological Foundation

William M. Struthers, “Case Studies in the Neuroscience of Agency”

Associate Professor of Psychology, Wheaton College, Specialist in neuropsychology and author of Wired for
Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain