God images: A concept map

Explores research on God images, suggesting that prior investigations have been unnecessarily influenced by the tendency to limit participants' perspe ctives to a set of predetermined descriptors. Concept mapping, a method com bining phenomenological inquiry and open card-sorts, is introduced as a way of portraying the scope, latent structure, and relative salience of images of God. Our exploratory concept map suggests that God images vary along th e underlying dimensions of punitive versus nurturant and mystical versus an thropomorphic. participants reported that traditional God images (e.g., "Cr eator," "Everlasting," "Everywhere") were much more salient for them than m ore punitive (e.g., "Intimidating," "Unfair") or nontraditional (e.g., "Hum orous," "Woman") images.