Donald Eric Capps (January 30, 1939 – August 26, 2015) was an American theologian and William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He specialized in the psychology of religion.
Donald Eric Capps was born in Omaha, Nebraska. After studying at Lewis & Clark College (B.A. 1960) and Yale Divinity School (B.D. 1963, S.T.M. 1965) and University of Chicago (M.A. 1966), he earned his Ph.D. also at the University of Chicago in 1970. His dissertation explored a psycho-historical analysis of the personality of the English theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman, and particularly his vocational struggles.
Capps' academic career started as Instructor at the Department of Religious Studies at the Oregon State University during the spring and summer of 1969. He then became Instructor and Assistant Professor at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago between 1969 and 1974. Later, he was appointed Associate Professor at the Department of Religious Studies of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina where he lectured between 1974 and 1976. Between 1976 and 1981, he was Associate Professor and then Professor at the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University.
In 1981, he joined the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was appointed the William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Theology. In 1989, Uppsala University, Sweden awarded him a degree of Doctor honoris causa in Theology for his contributions to the field of Psychology of Religion.
Other honors include the William F. Bier Award for contribution to Psychology of Religion, granted in 1995 by the Division 36 of the American Psychological Association; the Helen Flanders Dunbar Centennial Award, granted in 2002 by the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York; and the Joseph A. Sittler Award for Theological Leadership, granted in 2003 by Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
He was the book review editor for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion between 1980 and 1983 and editor for the same journal between 1983 and 1988. Furthermore, between 1990 and 1992 he was the president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. He was an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America beginning in 1972. In May 2009, he retired with the status of Professor emeritus but remained lecturing as adjunct until his death.
Capps died on August 26, 2015, aged 76, in Trenton, New Jersey, as a consequence of injuries suffered in a car crash in Princeton.
Capps wrote, co-authored, edited and co-edited dozens of books and journal issues and published more than one hundred chapters, articles, and reviews in books and journals.
100 Years of Happiness: Insights and Findings from the Experts. with Nathan Carlin. Santa Barbara: Praeger. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4408-0363-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
Agents of Hope: A Pastoral Psychology. Minneapolis; Eugene: Augsburg Fortress; Wipf & Stock. 2001 . ISBN 978-1-57910-811-3.
Biblical Approaches to Pastoral Counseling. Philadelphia; Eugene: Westminster; Wipf & Stock. 2003 . ISBN 978-0-664-24388-3.
Penggunaan Alkitab dalam konseling pastoral [The use of the Bible in pastoral counseling] (in Indonesian). Yogyakarta: Penebit Kanisius. 1999. ISBN 978-979-672-150-4.
The Child's Song: The Religious Abuse of Children. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox. 1995. ISBN 978-0-664-25554-1.
Deadly Sins and Saving Virtues. Minneapolis; Eugene: Fortress; Wipf & Stock. 2001 . ISBN 978-0-8006-1948-0.
대죄와 구원의 덕 [The virtues of sin and salvation for] (in Korean). trans. 김진영 옮김. 서울: 한국장로교출판사. 2008. ISBN 978-89-398-0387-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
The Decades of Life: A Guide to Human Development. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox. 2008. ISBN 978-0-664-23241-2.
The Depleted Self: Sin in a Narcissistic Age. Minneapolis: Fortress. 1992. ISBN 978-0-8006-2587-0.
고갈된 자아의 치유 [Depleted of self healing] (in Korean). trans. 김진영 옮김. 서울: 한국장로교출판사. 2001. ISBN 978-89-398-0375-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)