The Rise of “Evangelical Psychology”: Establishing Clinical Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary

In September 1965, Fuller Theological Seminary opened its doors to students of psychology for the first time. By 1974, it had become the first evangelical institution of higher learning to become officially accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) for its clinical psychology program. This accreditation, a central goal from the outset, served as a model for how evangelical colleges could integrate into the broader sphere of American higher education without abandoning their distinct evangelical perspective. Historically, conservative religious circles viewed psychology as competing with or undermining religious values. However, by the 1960s, psychology had permeated mainstream American culture, prompting concerns that evangelical patients consulting “secular” psychologists might lose their moral compass or even their faith. This article examines the introduction of psychology at evangelical colleges by exploring two key questions: how evangelicals adopted and redefined a previously “secular” discipline, and how they managed to gain APA accreditation for a distinctly evangelical psychological training. These two achievements demonstrated evangelicals’ ability to integrate into the broader field of American higher education without endorsing the secular culture that made such an integration possible.