How quickly does a religious person begin to feel that God has forgiven them? Psychologists from Harvard University and Gordon College tried to answer this question. Their work was published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. The scientists observed Christians who had recently committed a wrongdoing and still felt unforgiven.
The study involved 175 practicing Christians from the US aged 19 to 78 (average age about 42). Among them were approximately 59% women and 74% white people. Most identified as Catholics (38%), nondenominational Christians (23%) and Baptists (16%). Participants filled out questionnaires on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th and 16th day after they became aware of their wrongdoing. Most often these were sexual sins (22%), anger or resentment (21%) and lying (15%).
The scientists measured two processes. The first was repentance, that is, actively turning to God with an acknowledgment of one's guilt. The second was the feeling of absolution, an inner certainty that God has forgiven. Both indicators grew fastest in the first days after the wrongdoing, and then the growth slowed. This is described by a logarithmic curve, a line that first rises steeply and then flattens out.
On the first day, the average level of repentance was already fairly high, 2.52 points out of 4. But the feeling of forgiveness started from a lower mark, 1.90 out of 4. Over 16 days, the feeling of forgiveness grew faster than repentance (0.28 versus 0.19 points). At the same time, individual trajectories varied greatly: the starting level had almost no effect on the rate of change.
The researchers also checked what predicts faster spiritual recovery, the restoration of inner equilibrium. It turned out that abstract ideas about God (whether he is kind or strict) and a general tendency to feel forgiven did not affect the rate. But the quality of a living relationship with God mattered. Those who on the first day less often experienced inner conflict with God (feelings of anger, fear of punishment) more quickly increased both repentance and the feeling of forgiveness. And a stronger initial feeling of closeness to God predicted a faster growth of the feeling of forgiveness.
In addition, a surge in repentance at one stage predicted a higher feeling of forgiveness at the next. The reverse feedback was weaker. This is consistent with the sequence: first repentance, then the feeling of forgiveness, and then a renewed sense of closeness to God. However, the authors emphasize that this is an observational study, and it does not prove causation. Correlation, a statistical relationship, by itself does not mean that one phenomenon causes another.
The work has limitations. The scientists deliberately selected people who, a day after the wrongdoing, still did not feel forgiveness, so the results may not extend to those who calm down immediately. In addition, some participants did not fill out all the questionnaires, which could have influenced the conclusions. The authors also remind that they studied the psychological experience of reconciliation with God, not the theological question of whether God actually forgave.