Divine Forgiveness and God images - John Templeton Foundation

South Africa (SA) is one of the most religious places in the world: 94% of adults surveyed
nationally identify as religious/spiritual, and 74% of adults consider religion important to them.
Research has established a significant relationship between perceiving and receiving/experiencing
Divine Forgiveness (DF) and the willingness to engage in self- and interpersonal-forgiveness. After three decades, SA still grapples with apartheid’s legacy of poverty and social inequality. Studying DF in the demanding ‘laboratory’ of SA’s post-apartheid, multi-faith, multi-denominational, multi-cultural society is crucial because DF might promote intergroup forgiveness (largely overlooked in the DF literature); this could be an important prosocial coping strategy in the aftermath of intergroup transgressions (most notably, apartheid) capable of changing intergroup emotions and behaviors, and contributing to the country’s social transformation. This Project opens a new frontier in DF research, integrating it with social psychological theories relating to intergroup relations.

This John Templeton Foundation funded project studies notions of Divine Forgiveness among South Africans in the aftermath of apartheid and colonialism. South Africa is a highly religious society, with 94% of the population indicating that they are religious. However, religious imagery, beliefs, and commitments play a complex and ambiguous role in social relations and political engagements. This study relies on research in social psychology and theology to understand the complex configurations and understandings of Divine Forgiveness among South African persons of diverse racial, ethnical, and religious backgrounds.