James Meredith Day, Ph.D. is a developmental and clinical psychologist who has made significant contributions to the psychology of moral development, and the psychology of religion.

Life and Work

Dr. James M. Day, born February 26^th, 1955, in Ohio, USA, works in the areas of developmental and clinical psychology, and is a licensed psychologist.  He is a graduate of Oberlin College (A.B. Religion, Oberlin, Ohio, USA); Harvard University (Ed.M. Counseling and Consulting Psychology and Human Development minor, Cambridge, MA), the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D., Counseling and Professional Psychology, Philadelphia, PA), and the University of Cambridge (CTM, Theology, Cambridge, UK). He has completed additional studies at Columbia University and Yale University.  Dr. Day is currently a Full Professor at the Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, where he is a member of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Hampshire, USA, and an associate of the Taos Institute, Taos, New Mexico, USA. He also sees clients in private practice at PsyGroup, in Brussels, Belgium.  Prior to taking a tenured professorship at Louvain, Dr. Day was Assistant Professor, and then Associate Professor, at Boston University, where he directed its counseling psychology program in Europe.

The focus of Dr. Day’s work is the psychology of moral development and how religious elements play a role in its structures, mechanisms, and processes.  Key elements related to his research include cognitive complexity, the relationship of constructivist models to constructionist and socio-cultural ones, including narrative models, in thinking about, conducting research in, and crafting interventions for positive, and maximal, human development, across the life span, with a special focus on adolescent and adult development, and contextual variables such as gender, religious affiliation, ethnicity, and other socio-cultural variables.

Note:  Dr. Day’s work has been influenced by formative conversations with Lawrence Kohlberg, Erik Erikson, and Peter Kuriloff, who figured amongst his teachers at Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania, Michael Commons, with whom he founded the Louvain-Harvard Project in Moral and Religious Cognition and the Model of Hierarchical Complexity, and Kenneth Gergen, Sheila McNamee, Peggy Penn, John Rijsman, and others in the constructionist psychology movement, with whom he has worked at the Taos Institute and the Taos-Tilburg doctoral program, and others who have made huge contributions to the way we think about morality, identity, relationship, and maximal human development.

Note: Dr. Day has received awards from the National Science Foundation of the USA, the American Association for Counseling and Development, and has been recognized for outstanding teaching at Boston University and the Universite catholique de Louvain. He has been a keynote speaker for numerous professional conferences, and a visiting scholar and guest lecturer at  Cambridge, Columbia, Cornell, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Harvard, Oklahoma, Paris, Porto, and Princeton universities, and at Rollins College.

Note: Dr. Day’s work has appeared in the Adult Developments: The Bulletin of the Society for Research in Adult Development; American Psychologist, Human Development, New Directions in Child Development, The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, The Journal of Education, The Journal for Specialists in Group Work; Pedagogia et Vita, The Journal of Moral Education, The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; Junge Kinder; Theory and Psychology; World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution;  leading handbooks in the fields of human development and the psychology of religion, including The Handbook of Adult Development, Social Constructionism and Psychology; and, (forthcoming), The Oxford Handbook of Adult Development and Learning; and in widely recognized edited volumes, such as . Moralisches urteil und Handeln; Jesus and Psychology; Hermeneutical Approaches in the Psychology of Religion, Companion to Marital Spirituality;  and others.

Note:  Dr. Day’s co-edited volume: Human Development Across the Life Span: Educational and Psychological Applications has been identified as the leading resource book in its field at Questia.com and he has been identified as a leading contributor to the advancement of narrative psychology in the areas of moral psychology, religion, and theology at Narrative Psych. Com: Narrative Psychology, the Internet and Resource Guide, along with Charles Taylor, Stanley Hauerwas, Paul Ricoeur, and David Tracy. Dr. Day was recently identified as one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of moral psychology, moral philosophy, and moral education for the New Directions in Moral Psychology: Theory, Research, and Practice Symposium  sponsored by Cornell University..

Note: Dr. Day is currently Co-Editor of Archive for the Psychology of Religion: The Journal of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, and serves on the editorial, scientific, and review boards of many scholarly reviews and scientific societies.

Note:  Dr. Day contributions earned him recognition for the volume 2000 Leading Intellectuals for the 21st Century, recently published by IBC, Cambridge.

Note:  Dr. Day is also an ordained Priest, in the Church of England, Anglican Communion, serving as Honorary Assistant Chaplain at The Pro-Cathedral of The Holy Trinity, Brussels; and the Spiritualite et Vie Project at the Universite catholique de Louvain.

Note:  Dr. Day is married to Birte Marianne Henkelmann-Day, policy analyst and teacher of religion, and yoga, and has three living children; Julia, Jonathan, and Jacob.

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Day, J. (in press) Believing as if it were true: Cognitive Complexity, Postconventional Belief, and the Appreciation of Irony and Paradox in Moral and Religious Commitments. In A. Combs, A Pfaffenberger & P. Marko (Eds.) The Post-Conventional Personality: Perspectives on Higher Development.Festschrift Jane Loevenger  State University of New York Press.

Day, J. (in press) La (re)conversion religieuse face aux dilemmas moraux: Regards empirique sur base des recherches avec des adolescents et des jeunes adultes chretiens et musilmans en Angleterre et en Belgique. To appear in P-Y Brandt (Ed.) La conversion religieuse: Approches scientifiques.  Lausanne. Labor et Fides.

Day, J. (in press) Du tiers present au transcendent : Ombres, lumieres, et objets du transitionnel. In A-C Frankard & J-L Brackelaire (Eds) Regards croisés autour des objetstransitionnels. Séparations, pertes, quête de lien aujourd’hui. Paris. Eries.

Day, J. (2009) What are life stories good for?  Life stories, life review, and psychological development in older adults. R.Ruard Ganzevoort et al., Levensboekmethoden in de ouderenzorg. Research Report. Kampen, The Netherlands. Protestantse Theologische Universiteit.

Day, J. (2009) Conscience: Does religion matter? Empirical studies of religious elements in pro-social behaviour, prejudice, empathy development, and moral reasoning. In Koops, W, Brugman, D., Ferguson, T. & Sanders, A.. (Ed.) The Structure and Development of Conscience. London. Psychology Press. 81-114.

Day, J. (2008). Human development and the Model of Hierarchical Complexity: Learning from research in the psychology of moral and religious development. World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, 64, 452-467.

Day, J. (2008) Marital spirituality through the life course: insights from psychology.  In Knieps-Port le Roi, T. & Sandor, M. (Ed.) Companion to marital spirituality. Leuven. Peeters Press. 85-104.

Day, J. (2007) Moral reasoning, religious reasoning, and their supposed relationships: paradigms, problems, and prospects. Adult Developments: The Bulletin of the Society for Research in Adult Development.10(1), 6-10.

Day, J. (2007) Personal development. In F. Watts & E. Gulliford (Eds) Jesus and Psychology:  Approaching the Gospels Psychologically. London. Dartman & Todd.

Day, J. & Naedts, M. (2006). Religious development. In R. Mosher, D. Youngman, & J. Day (Eds), Human development across the lifespan: Educational and psychological applications. Second Edition  (pp. 239-264). Westport: Praeger Publishing & Information Age Publishing.

Day, J. & Youngman, D. (2003). Discursive practices and their interpretation in the psychology of religious development : From constructivist canons to constructionist alternatives. In J. Demmick & C. Andreoletti (Ed.), The Handbook of Adult Development (pp. 509-532). New York: Plenum

Day, J. (2002). La psychanalyse: ouverture ou fermeteure? In J. Florence, P. de Neuter, S. Passone, & X. Renders (Eds), La psychanalyse et l’universite. Louvain-la-Neuve. Academia Bruylant.

Day, J. (2002).  Religious development as discursive construction.  In C. Hermans, G. Immink, A. de Jong & J. van der Lans (Eds).  Social construction and theology. Brill. Leiden & Boston.

Day, J. (2001). From structuralism to eternity?: Re-imagining the psychology of religious development after the cognitive-developmental paradigm. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 11, 173-183.

Day, J. (2001). Le discours religieux en contexte: deux etudes aupres d'adolescents et de jeunes adultes en Belgique francophone. In V. Saroglou & D. Hutsebaut (Eds.), Religion et developpement humain: Questions psychologiques (pp. 57-69). Paris: L'Harmattan.

Day, J. (2000a). Incertitude, identite et questions morales dans le developpement des adolescents. In G. Bajoit, F. Digneffe, J-M. Jaspard, Q. Nollet de Brauwere (Eds.), Jeunesse et societe: La socialisation des jeunes dans un monde en mutation. Brussels: De Boeck

Hannick, S., Passone, S. & Day, J. (2000b). La communication facilitee pour les autistes: a prendre ou a laisser? Une etude exploratoire. Neuropsychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent 48, 269-75.

Day, J. (1999a). Exemplary sierrans: Moral influences. In Mosher, R., Connor, D., Kalliel, K., Day, J., Yakota, N, Porter, M. & Whiteley, J., Moral action in young adulthood (pp. 145-154). National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition: University of South Carolina Press.

Day, J. (1999b). The primacy of relationship: A meditation on education, faith, and the dialogical self. In J. Conroy (Ed.), Catholic education: Inside out-outside in. Dublin: Veritas.

Day, J. (1999c). Das Gute wissen-das Gute tun: Narrationen uber Urteil und Handeln in den moralischen Entscheidungen junger Erwachsener. In D. Garz, F. Oser & W. Althof (Eds.), Moralisches urteil und Handeln (pp. 406-431). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.

Day, J. (1999d). The moral influence interview. In R. Mosher, D. Connor, K. Kalliel, J. Day, N. Yakota, M. Porter, & J. Whiteley (Eds.), Moral action in young adulthood. Charleston S.C., Center for the Study of the Freshman Year, University of South Carolina Press.