Authors: Chara, Jr., Paul J.; Gillett, Jill N.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23(3), Fall 2004, pp. 234-248

Abstract:

Possible synesthetic perceptions of God by 187 students from a secular university and a religiously affiliated college were investigated. Participants were presented 27 questions about their sensory images of God. Participants’ responses to the questions revealed several strong regularities in perception, suggesting a weak synesthetic experience and were interpreted to support the Martino and Marks (2001) semantic coding hypothesis. Additionally, gender, religious orientation, and value preferences were found to be related to many of the participants’ images of God, whereas some associations appeared to transcend the psychosocial factors studied. The perceptions of the participants were also compared to relevant biblical passages and found to be highly consistent with a scriptural portrayal of God in some ways but inconsistent with a biblical depiction of God in other respects.