Towards a psychology of divine forgiveness.

Abstract

The world’s longstanding religions emphasize divine forgiveness yet systematic research on God’s forgiveness is notably absent from the scientific literature. Because religious beliefs are a core motivating feature in many peoples’ lives, divine forgiveness requires attention if we are to attain a more complete understanding of human behavior. The goal of this paper is to provide a road map for future research on divine forgiveness. Towards this end, it provides a review and critique of extant research followed by an analysis of the construct of divine forgiveness. This provides a segue to identifying and discussing several topics for future investigation. These include documenting how divine forgiveness is perceived and experienced, the role of mental representation of God and the role of various dimensions of one’s relationship with God in understanding divine forgiveness, and the relations among types of forgiveness (divine, interpersonal and self-forgiveness). Also outlined are numerous approaches to the development of a psychometrically sound measure of divine forgiveness. The paper concludes with a brief summary of salient issues.

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