Renovating Our Images of God: Neuroscience and Biblical Meditation

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.

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Abstract

This paper proposes meditation on selected scriptures as one possible way of addressing a problem identified by the Baylor Religion Survey (2006): the disconnect, for many American Christians, between stated propositional beliefs about a benevolent God, and implicit mental models of God as angry, critical, or distant. Possible causes of this disconnect, and negative consequences for personal piety and programs of discipleship and spiritual formation are suggested. A version of lectio divina ––biblical meditation––combining scriptures emphasizing the benevolence of God (Table 2) together with a picture of a smiling Jesus is presented. This method attempts to integrate reflection on scripture with insights from neuroscience––e.g., implicit memories, neural mirroring, and attachment theory. Further research is suggested to experimentally test the hypothesis assumed in this paper––that meditation on scriptures emphasizing the benevolence of God may mitigate or reframe negative images of God rooted in dysfunctional childhood and family relationships, or abusive experiences with authority figures.