Exploring core facets of divine forgiveness across monotheistic religions

This study, which is the first part of a broader research project, addresses a significant gap in the psychology of religions by investigating the experience of divine forgiveness across the major monotheistic religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Its main aim was to identify similarities and differences in the meaning and psychological experience of divine forgiveness across these three religions. Divine forgiveness, which can be defined as forgiveness by a Supreme Being or higher power, is a fundamental concept in many religions. Despite its profound impact on believers’ well-being, divine forgiveness has only recently gained attention in psychosocial empirical research. Key aspects of this construct, such as the type of wrongdoings constituting sin and subject to divine forgiveness, the conditional or unconditional nature of divine forgiveness, and believers’ personal experiences of being forgiven by God, remain understudied. The present study involved theologians from the three monotheistic religions, who participated in a focus group. Moreover, an online self-report questionnaire was administered to a sample of about 200 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim believers. Recruitment was carried out through advertisements in religious communities, employing a convenience sampling approach. The anonymous questionnaire included both open-ended and multiple-choice questions to elicit qualitative and quantitative responses. Qualitative data were analysed using a combination of thematic and content analysis, while quantitative data were statistically analysed through SPSS mainly using descriptive methods. Combining qualitative and quantitative analyses, still in progress, the study intends to provide a comprehensive understanding of nuanced perspectives on divine forgiveness among believers. The findings have the potential to significantly contribute to the psychology of religions, revealing both universal and culturally specific dimensions of this fundamental psychological phenomenon.