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Lallene J. Rector


Professor of Psychology of Religion and Pastoral Psychotherapy and President Emerita


Education


  • B.A., Texas Christian University
  • M.T.S., Ph.D., Boston University


Effective Care-Takers of Souls


My interests in the psychology of religion and in psychoanalysis have been enlivened by a general paradigm shift in science which has led to a focus on human beings as fundamentally relational. As persons of faith, a psychology based on the assumption of the central need and motivation for relational connectedness to another resonates with the biblical accounts of the partnership of Adam and Eve, the covenant of Yahweh with the people of Israel, the New Testament accounts of a redeeming relationship with the Christ, the commandment to love self and neighbor, and the necessity of the church to function as a body. It becomes clear that our intellectual knowledge and clinical experience underscore wisdom about human nature which long precedes our efforts to understand it in the twentieth century. Our task at the seminary is to help students integrate these learnings in ways that empower them to be effective care-takers of souls.