Daniel Rancour-Laferriere was born and was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church in 1943, grew up a devout Catholic, and served as president of his Newman Club in college. Since receiving a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Brown University in 1972, Rancour-Laferriere has published numerous scholarly articles, as well as a dozen books, including The Slave Soul of Russia (1995), Tolstoy on the Couch (1998), Tolstoy's Quest for God (2007), and The Sign of the Cross (2011). As Emeritus Professor at the University of California, Davis, Rancour-Laferriere continues his psychological research on Christian themes.