My name is Don Ray. I have over 20 years' diversified experience as an ordained Pastor; theology and leadership educator; mixed methods researcher; Police & Fire Chaplain Certified in Critical Incident Stress Management (C-CISM); and more.
+ + +
My recent U.S. nationwide mixed methods study is the largest-known project ever conducted on trauma, coping, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among clergy (n = 502), and the only known empirical study to examine PTG from a Lutheran Christian perspective.
M.Div. | Concordia Seminary (St. Louis, MO), Presidential Scholarship
Ph.D. in Education | Biola University, Talbot School of Theology (La Mirada, CA), Aquila full academic scholarship
+ + +
As an early-career academic my teaching, research, education, & theological interests of late include:
trauma, suffering, and trials as continuing education;
trauma, coping and religious coping, and posttraumatic growth among clergy and first responders, respectively;
adult continuing education (lifelong experiential learning);
Luther's theology of the cross, and the essential nature of agonizing struggles (Anfechtungen / tentationes) for Christian formation and maturation
“We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Rembrandt (ca. 1661). Return of the Prodigal Son.