Renovating Our Images of God: Neuroscience and Biblical Meditation
Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care August 10, 2024 John Jefferson Davis
Many American Christians profess belief in a benevolent God yet hold implicit mental models of God as angry or distant. This paper proposes that meditating on selected scriptures emphasizing God's benevolence—a version of lectio divina combined with a picture of a smiling Jesus—may help bridge that gap. The method integrates reflection on scripture with insights from neuroscience, including implicit memories, neural mirroring, and attachment theory. The author suggests that such meditation could mitigate negative images of God rooted in dysfunctional childhood or abusive experiences, and calls for experimental testing of this hypothesis.