ABSTRACT

Grace is a central theme in religious traditions but receives only recently attention by psychologists. Conceptualizations of grace seem predominantly constructed within theological and theoretical frameworks, whereas these conceptualizations may be poorly aligned with the definitions of grace of lay persons. This study clarifies the concept of grace and creates a bottom-up definition, based on the understanding of non-experts in a secularized society. A total of 456 Belgian adults (64% female, mean age = 50.04) provided descriptions of grace in an online survey. A multidisciplinary coding team conducted quantitative and qualitative content analysis (Nvivo). The following themes and categories emerged (1) virtuous qualities: grace is recognized in a multitude of good qualities with forgiveness as the ultimate example; (2) extra-ordinary gift: grace is something you receive unmerited, the nature of the giving goes beyond mere fair exchange; (3) transcendent and immanent setting: grace is encountered in the realm of the divine as well as in human relationships and daily life; (4) profound experience: the giving and receiving of grace entails an articulated personal involvement leading to new beginnings and freedom and (5) profound feelings: the experience of grace is accompanied with positive feelings and states often preceded by negative feelings and states. Distribution of categories by respondent’s age, gender, and religiosity showed robustness of underlying characteristics in the definition of grace. However, significant group differences are found: believing and older participants described more often extra-ordinary and transcendent characteristics, whereas nonbelievers used more referrals to faults and forgiveness. Believing people used more positive feelings and women used more virtuous qualities in describing grace. The importance of further investigating the psychological dynamics of grace and its capacity for enhancing well-being is highlighted.

摘要

恩典是宗教传统的中心主题，但直到最近才受到心理学家的关注。恩典的概念化似乎主要建立在神学和理论框架内，而这些概念化与外行人的恩典的定义可能不一致。这项研究基于对世俗社会中非专家的理解，阐明了宽限的概念并创建了一个自下而上的定义。一项在线调查中，共有456位比利时成年人（女性占64％，平均年龄= 50.04）提供了宽限期的描述。一个多学科的编码团队进行了定量和定性的内容分析（Nvivo）。以下主题和类别出现了：（1）品德高尚：宽容被许多优良品质所认可，宽恕是最终的例子；（2）非凡的礼物：恩典是您应得的，奉献的本质超出了公平交换的范围；（3）超越和内在的环境：在神的境界以及人际关系和日常生活中会遇到恩典；（4）深刻的经验：给予和接受恩典需要有明确的个人参与，从而导致新的起点和自由；以及（5）深刻的情感：恩典的经历伴随着积极的情感和状态，通常伴随着消极的情感和状态。根据受访者的年龄，性别和宗教信仰进行的类别分布显示了宽限期定义中潜在特征的鲁棒性。但是，发现了明显的群体差异：相信和年龄较大的参与者更经常描述非同寻常和超越的特征，非信徒则更多地引用过错和宽恕。相信人们在描述恩典时会使用更积极的感觉，而女人会使用更道德的品质。强调了进一步调查恩典的心理动力及其增强幸福感的能力的重要性。