Who Believes in a Male God? Ideological Beliefs and Gendered Conceptualizations of God

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have explored whether certain conceptualizations of God are associated with various attitudes and beliefs. In the current study, we examined the relationship between gendered God concepts and the belief that God is involved in one’s life and religious-related rigid ideologies (i.e., religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]). Across two studies, one conducted with religious students at a Jesuit university and the other with a national sample, we found that individuals who believed God to be male were more likely to believe that God had more control and involvement in their life, had higher levels of religious fundamentalism and higher levels of RWA-Aggression (Study 1 and 2), RWA–Submission (Study 1 and 2), and RWA–Conventionalism (Study 2) than individuals with other gendered or nongendered conceptualizations of God. Implications of the broader impact that gendered God concepts have on social and political domains are explored. Last, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Notes

¹ There is a recent debate among some researchers calling for behavioral scientists who study religion to use the terms God concepts and God images to distinctively convey certain meaning (Davis et al., 2013; Hall & Fujikawa, 2013). They argue that God concepts reflect explicit, cognitive, doctrinal representations of the Divine, whereas God images reflect implicit, affect-laden, experiential representations of the Divine. However, these terms, as well as others (e.g., God representations, God perceptions), are still used interchangeably in the literature. Because there is no widespread consensus on what terminology should be adopted, we use both God concept and God representations.

² This also included individuals who believed in a female God (n = 4). Given the small number of individuals who believed in a female God, we combined this condition with individuals who have female + male (androgynous) conceptualizations of God. However, the results remain the same when individuals with female God concepts are excluded.