“Our invitation to thrive is understood as an invitation to a new order: one set forth and defined by the pattern—the logos—of Christ’s life.” Dr. King, in her installation address as the Peter L. Benson Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Science on May 5, 2016.
BA, Stanford University
MDiv, Fuller Theological Seminary
PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary
CAMPUS AFFILIATIONS
Thrive Center for Human Development
School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy
Fuller Theological Seminary
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Human thriving and flourishing, telos, religious and spiritual development, virtue, joy, positive youth development, theological perspectives on development.
BIO
Pamela Ebstyne King, Ph.D., is the Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science in the School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy and Executive Director of the Thrive Center for Human Development at Fuller Seminary. Through her scholarship and leadership she seeks to promote a movement of human thriving that contributes to flourishing societies.
A developmental psychologist and ordained minister, King’s research focuses on how faith, spirituality, religion, and virtue foster lives of purpose, love, and meaning. She is recognized for pioneering the study of religious and spiritual development within developmental psychology and for her interdisciplinary work on telos—the ultimate purpose that guides human flourishing. Integrating theology, psychology, and community engagement, she studies how people grow individually and relationally to contribute to the common good.
King is the host of the With & For podcast, where she brings together leading voices in psychology, spirituality, and culture to explore how spiritual health helps people live whole and meaningful lives. Through the Thrive Center, she engages the public through lectures, writing, and the translation of her scholarship and research into practical tools for individuals, families, and communities.
She is coauthor of The Reciprocating Self: Human Development in Theological Perspective and Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Theology, and Human Flourishing; coeditor of The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence; and coauthor of the inaugural chapter on religious and spiritual development in the Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (7th ed.).
King completed her undergraduate and postdoctoral work at Stanford University and her M.Div. and Ph.D. in Marital and Family Studies at Fuller Seminary. King was a visiting scholar under the divinity faculty at Cambridge University. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), she regularly speaks, preaches, and consults with organizations and faith communities. She serves on the advisory board of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Pam and her husband, Brad, have three children.
Download King’s CV, which includes a list of her current publications, here.
Featured Publications
On the basis of a theologically grounded understanding of the nature of persons and the self, Jack O. Balswick, Pamela Ebstyne King and Kevin S. Reimer present a model of human development that ranges across all of life's stages: infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood and elder adulthood. They do this by drawing on a biblical model of relationality, where the created goal or purpose of human development is to become a reciprocating self―fully and securely related to others and to God...
What does God's creation of humanity through the process of evolution mean for human flourishing? The emerging field of evolutionary psychology remains controversial, perhaps especially among Christians. Yet according to Justin Barrett and Pamela Ebstyne King it can be a powerful tool for understanding human nature and our distinctively human purpose.
Thriving with Stone Age Minds provides an introduction to evolutionary psychology, explaining key concepts like hyper-sociality, information gathering, and self-control...