Core facets of divine forgiveness: a study across monotheistic religions
Francesca Giorgia Paleari, Francesca Vittoria Danioni, Valentina Valtulini, Daniela Barni, Aslı Bugay Sökmez, Sara Eissa, Yaakov Greenwald, Ariel Knafo-Noam, Camillo Regalia

TL;DR
This study explores how divine forgiveness is understood in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, highlighting both shared and unique perspectives.
Contribution
The study identifies universal and culturally specific dimensions of divine forgiveness across monotheistic religions.
Findings
Shared aspects include the belief that God's mercy exceeds His justice.
Differences exist in the pathways to seek and achieve divine forgiveness.
The research contributes to understanding the multidimensional nature of divine forgiveness.
Abstract
Among the religious factors that significantly contribute to believers’ well-being, research on the personal experience of divine forgiveness (DF) remains in its infancy. The aim of this study was to investigate similarities and differences in the conceptualization of DF, its conditional/unconditional nature, and the understanding of sin across the three main monotheistic religions. This was achieved by interviewing theologians (N = 3) through a focus group and having lay believers (N = 229, 63.8% female, Mage = 33.09 years, SD = 13.81) from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism complete a self-report questionnaire. The theologians’ and believers’ perspectives revealed that while there are shared aspects across religions (e.g., God’s mercy is greater than His justice), some differences are evident (e.g., the pathways to seek and achieve DF). These findings make a significant contribution…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsForgiveness and Related Behaviors · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
