Back to Events Jan 20 Honors Student Life Honors Program Speaker Series: Dr. Victor Counted Date: January 20, 2027 Time: 7:00 - 8:00 pm Location: Kinlaw Boardroom Kinlaw Library Boardroom A Flourishing Spiritual Life: Attachment, Faith, and the Formation of CharacterAccounts of character and virtue usually begin with the will. Virtue is practiced into being, and courage, gratitude, and hope are cognitive habits a person builds over time. Attachment science asks a prior question: where does the raw material come from? Decades of research, regardless of discipline, show that human beings are formed for connection before they are capable of choice, and that the security of our earliest bonds shapes how we trust, see ourselves, how we bear distress, and whether we believe we are worth anything at all. Drawing on his new book, Bonding with God: Attachment Theory and the Psychology of Faith (Baker Academic, 2026), and on evidence from his Abundant Life Flourishing Lab, Dr Victor Counted argues that character and virtue are relationally sourced. He traces what happens when a bond is disrupted, following the protest, despair, and detachment sequence that clinicians recognize and that many people experience as a crisis of faith. He then turns to repair, and to what secure attachment offers someone who has stopped expecting to be held in regard. The talk closes with the practical question underneath the theoretical emphasis: what do families, congregations, and campuses actually do to make psychological security available to the people in them? Dr. Victor Counted, Associate Professor of Psychology at Regent UniversityLearn more about the Honors Program at Asbury. Learn more about the Honors Program Speaker Series at Asbury.