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Religion and Self-Forgiveness




Most of the world’s major religions value forgiveness. In Christianity, forgiveness is a commandment with a threat. The forgiveness commonly referred to in the Bible is forgiveness of others; however, recently, psychological scientists have studied self-forgiveness. 

Self-forgiveness is the unique case in which people are both offenders and victims. 

People are often in the case of failing to live up to their moral standards, which results in harm to themselves. They may have felt guilty for abusing drugs or acts they performed against another. They rehearse the events and cannot seem to let them go. In short, they do not seem able to forgive themselves even if they have been forgiven by others or, advised by clergy that God has forgiven them. 

This issue of living with unforgiveness is not just a matter of religious beliefs or argument because studies show that forgiveness is related to general and mental health (e.g., see Worthington, 2020). Thus, self-forgiveness becomes and important area of study.

Read more on Self-Forgiveness

Recently, Frank Fincham and his team examined religion and self-forgiveness. (Fincham, May, & Chavez, 2019). They conducted two studies. The first study was based on findings from a survey of young (M = 19.89, SD = 1.61) college students (n = 393).

The authors concluded:

Taken together, the results obtained in this study provide evidence to suggest that religious involvement and perceived forgiveness by God may influence self-forgiveness (p.3).

In the second study, they conducted an experiment with 91 young college students. In this study, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions. In each condition, the participants viewed four pictures: (a) images of an angry God, (b) images of a benevolent God, (c) abstract impressionistic paintings. They rated the images on a scale of artistry then completed a short survey of self-forgiveness. Those in the angry God condition scored the lowest on self-forgiveness compared to those in the paintings (control condition). The evidence did not support the value of images of a benevolent God to influence self-forgiveness.

There are several limitations noted by the authors. What might be of interest, if the findings are replicated and extended, is the way clergy or Christian counselors present God to religious people who struggle with forgiving themselves.

Read more on forgiveness and other virtues in Living Well on AMAZON and elsewhere.













Reference
Fincham, F. D., May, R. W., & Chavez, F. L. C. (2019). Does being religious lead to greater self-forgiveness? The Journal of Positive Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1615109

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