Seeing God as Cruel or Distant: Links with Divine Struggles Involving Anger, Doubt, and Fear of God's Disapproval

Many people experience what psychologists refer to as divine struggle: struggle focused on ideas about God or a perceived relationship with God. When trying to predict this type of spiritual struggle, it may be useful to consider a person's basic concept of God. We examined two facets of a negative God concept—seeing God as cruel or distant—as potential predictors of divine struggle. We expected that views of God as cruel and distant would correlate highly; however, we also proposed that each view would be especially useful in predicting certain forms of divine struggle. Specifically, we reasoned that seeing God as cruel would be especially useful in predicting anger at God and concern about God's anger or disapproval toward the self. In contrast, we proposed that seeing God as distant would be especially predictive of doubt about God's existence. These hypotheses received solid support in web-based studies with two samples (413 undergraduates and a broader sample of 471 U.S. adults).