Henry Kurze

Research Associate Henry Kurze holds a B.Sc. (Honours) in Politics, Psychology, Law, and Economics from the University of Amsterdam, where he graduated at the top of his class with a major in psychology. With a diverse educational background and a keen interest in systematic problems and integral metatheory, he is currently engaged in an exchange semester at McGill University. Next to working as the first student assistant in PPLE’s personal development programme, he has also devoted significant time to volunteering, including work in homeless shelters, European Solidarity Corpse programmes, and contributing to the award-winning British charity “Apart of Me.” There, he aids in creating digital psychotherapeutic tools for children facing complicated grief and trauma, as well as building the youth community and leading intervention programmes. Thus, he is passionate about bridging academic insights with real-world impact, dedicating his efforts to both learning and social advocacy.

Faith Development Pathway

The Faith Development Pathway (FDP) is a pioneering initiative dedicated to creating the world’s first open-access protocol for the developmental maturation of faith and ultimate concern. Building on James Fowler’s influential stages of faith and advancing them through the neo-Piagetian lens of hierarchical complexity scoring—specifically via the Computerized Lectical Assessment System (CLAS)—the FDP systematically charts the evolving cognitive and existential architecture of human meaning-making. Its goal is to rationally reconstruct the topography of healthy faith development across the lifespan and democratize this knowledge through accessible tools, assessments, and pedagogical applications. By equipping educators, spiritual leaders, curriculum designers, and social innovators with a scientifically rigorous and spiritually attuned developmental framework, the FDP aims to support both horizontal and vertical growth in faith across diverse populations. Envisioned as an incubator for a future Faith Development Institute, the initiative seeks to steward, refine, and disseminate this integrative protocol across disciplines, traditions, and global contexts.

The Cultural Complexity Index

The Cultural Complexity Index (CCI) initiative aims to quantify and analyze human cultural complexification across history. By applying advanced hierarchical complexity scoring to diverse cultural artifacts, the CCI will provide the first comprehensive dataset on cultural evolution. This project seeks to move cultural complexification theories from speculative sociology to empirical science, challenging relativistic academic paradigms and fostering more integrative approaches to today's complex global challenges. Through academic publications and public engagement, the CCI aims to catalyze a paradigm shift in understanding cultural evolution, offering crucial insights for addressing the intricate problems of our time.