Project Work Already Completed
An earlier phase of this project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, supported work that laid the foundation for the current RFP. A group of scholars met at Florida State University in October 2017 to explore the construct of divine forgiveness. Each scholar formally presented insights on divine forgiveness from the perspective of his or her research specialty. These presentations gave rise to rigorous discussions which resulted in the group formulating several questions that might be addressed to advance conceptual and empirical research on divine forgiveness. Following the meeting, further discussion occurred online. The meeting and subsequent discussion was instrumental in crystalizing plans for advancing scholarship on the topic.
Two conceptual articles were then developed. The first, “Towards a psychology of divine forgiveness”, offered a review and critique of existing literature followed by an analysis of the construct of divine forgiveness and culminated in the provision of a road map for future research. A second paper, “Towards a psychology of divine forgiveness: 2. Initial component analysis”, set out to identify the salient elements or “moving parts” in the human quest for divine forgiveness. The model offered integrates cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions involved in the human experience of divine forgiveness. Finally, the relevance of this analysis for other fields of research in developmental, social, and clinical psychology is briefly illustrated.
Five additional empirical articles on perceived forgiveness by God (PFBG) were published or are in press. The first investigated whether PFBG matters for understanding the well-established association between self-forgiveness and well-being. It does, at least for those who show lower levels of self- forgiveness.
A second paper examined the temporal relation between PFBG and self-forgiveness. Earlier PFBG predicted later self-forgiveness but not vice versa. In a third paper, similar results were found for interpersonal forgiveness in that PFBG predicted later interpersonal forgiveness across two different intervals independently of religiosity and socially desirable responding.
The fourth study asked whether PFBG, interpersonal and self-forgiveness were independently related to depressive symptoms. They are. A final study examined the relations among PFBG, interpersonal and self-forgiveness. Results from two different samples showed that PFBG does not act as a third variable accounting for the relation between the two earthly forms of forgiveness, but it did moderate the relationship. The association between interpersonal and self-forgiveness became stronger as PFBG increased.
Taken together the above findings suggest that investigation of divine forgiveness is not only timely but potentially very fruitful.