University of Groningen
Development and validation of the Dutch Questionnaire God Image
Schaap-Jonker, Hanneke; Eurelings-Bonekoe, Elisabeth E.M.; Jonker, Evert R.; Zock, Hetty
Published in:
Mental Health, Religion and Culture
DOI:
10.1080/13674670701581967
IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from
it. Please check the document version below.
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Publication date:
2008
Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database
Citation for published version (APA):
Schaap-Jonker, H., Eurelings-Bonekoe, E. E. M., Jonker, E. R., & Zock, H. (2008). Development and
validation of the Dutch Questionnaire God Image: Effects of mental health and religious culture.
Mental
Health, Religion and Culture
,
11
, 501-515. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670701581967
Copyright
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the
author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).
The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license.
More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne-
amendment.
Take-down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately
and investigate your claim.
Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the
number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum.
Download date: 10-08-2022
This article was downloaded by:[Jonker, Hanneke Schaap]
On: 2 June 2008
Access Details: [subscription number 793498771]
Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954
Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Mental Health, Religion & Culture
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713437783
Development and validation of the Dutch
Questionnaire God Image: Effects of mental health
and religious culture
Hanneke Schaap Jonker
a
; Elisabeth H. M. Eurelings-Bontekoe
b
; Hetty Zock
c
;
Evert Jonker
a
a
Department of Practical Theology, Protestant Theological University, Kampen, The
Netherlands
b
Leiden University-Institute for Psychological Research, Clinical Psychology Unit
Leiden, The Netherlands
c
Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, The
Netherlands
First Published: July 2008
To cite this Article: Jonker, Hanneke Schaap, Eurelings-Bontekoe, Elisabeth H. M., Zock, Hetty and Jonker, Evert
(2008) 'Development and validation of the Dutch Questionnaire God Image: Effects of mental health and religious
culture', Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 11:5, 501 — 515
To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/13674670701581967
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13674670701581967
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf
This article maybe used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction,
re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly
forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be
complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be
independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,
demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or
arising out of the use of this material.
Downloaded By: [Jonker, Hanneke Schaap] At: 20:48 2 June 2008
Mental Health, Religion & Culture
July 2008; 11(5): 501–515
Development and validation of the Dutch
Questionnaire God Image: Effects of
mental health and religious culture
HANNEKE SCHAAP JONKER
1
,
ELISABETH H. M. EURELINGS-BONTEKOE
2
,
HETTY ZOCK
3
, & EVERT JONKER
1
1
Department of Practical Theology, Protestant Theolog ical University, Kampen,
The Netherlands,
2
Leiden University-Institute for Psychological Research, Clinical
Psychology Unit Leiden, The Netherlands, and
3
Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies,
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract
This article presents the Dutch Questionnaire God Image (QGI), which has two
theory-based dimensions: feelings towards God and perceptions of God’s actions.
This instrument was validated among a sample of 804 respondents, of which 244
persons received psychotherapy. Results showed relationships between the
affective and cognitive aspect of the God image. The God image of psychiatric
patients had a more negative and threatening nature than the God image of
the non-psychiatric respondents. Also, religious culture appeared to affect the
God image.
Introduction
This article is a sequel to articles that have been published in earlier issues of this
journal on empirical research on the image of God (Braam et al., in press;
Eurelings-Bontekoe, Hekman-Van Steeg, & Verschuur, 2005; Schaap-Jonker,
Correspondence: Hanneke Schaap Jonker, Department of Practical Theology, Protestant
Theological University, PO Box 5021, 8260 GA Kampen, The Netherlands.
E-mail: jschaapjonker@gmail.com
ISSN 1367-4676 print/ISSN 1469-9737 online ß 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13674670701581967
Downloaded By: [Jonker, Hanneke Schaap] At: 20:48 2 June 2008
Eurelings-Bontekoe, Verhagen, & Zock, 2002). These studies used the Dutch
Questionnaire God Image (QGI) (in Dutch: Vragenlijst Godsbeeld, VGB),
a translation and adaptation of Sebastian Murken’s scales of God relationships
(Skalen zur religio
¨
sen Beziehung), which he in turn borrowed from Petersen
(1993) (Murken, 1998, pp. 96, 105–108, 198, 199). The present paper presents
the theoretical basis of the Dutch questionnaire, as well as the psychometric
qualities of the final version. Moreover, it addresses the role of mental health and
religious culture regarding the image of God.
The development of theories about images of God started with Freud, who
stated that a personal God is, from a psychological point of view, nothing but
an exalted father (Freud, 1910, 1913). A new push came from the work of
Ana-Marı
´
a Rizzuto (1979). Rizzuto distinguishes the God image from the God
concept. The God image has, in her view, a predominant affective quality,
whereas the God concept has a predominant rational/cognitive quality. Together,
these two form the God representation. In her work, she mainly deals with the
experiential aspect of the God representation and concentrates on the image of
God, which is grounded in the early interactions between the infant and its
parents and is rooted in the unconscious. However, as Aletti (2005, pp. 4, 9,
14, 15) rightly stresses, it is incorrect to confine the God image to the
unconscious representation of God, because it is culture and religion that give a
name—on a conscious level—to the object of the nameless desire which emerges
from the non-specific relational representations which take place in the
unconscious. In other words, the God image is only on a cultural and conscious
level related to God and God-talk. Moreover, in the light of modern theories of
both cognition and emotion, which point to the interrelatedness of these
phenomena (e.g., Frijda, 1986; Solomon, 1976; cf. Hill & Hood, 1999a, pp.
1017, 1018; Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1997, pp. 2, 3; Zeelenberg
& Aarts, 1999), the sharp distinction between affect laden God image and the
cognitive God concept is not tenable as well. It seems more adequate to speak of
an interaction between the cognitive and affective aspect of the God representa-
tion, because both elements influence each other: an individual’s thoughts of
God, containing some experience, have effects on their experiences of God, while
experiences of God affect the cognitions about God (cf. Hoffman, 2005, pp. 133,
134). Tentative results of an empirical study point to this interrelationship as well
(Hoffman, Jones, Williams, & Dillard, 2004).
Currently, in scientific literature, the term God image is used as synonymous
with the term God representation (Van der Lans, 2001, p. 357) and has taken on
a broader meaning than originally in Rizzuto’s (1979) theory. In this article, the
God image also has this broader meaning. On the one hand, it comprises one’s
emotional understanding of God, which reflects subjective experiences of God
and is developed through a relational, and initially unconscious, process in which
parents and significant others play a part. Simultaneously, it contains one’s
cognitive understanding of God, namely the rational, more objective part of the
God representation, which is based on what a person learns about God in
propositional terms, which in turn is related to the doctrines that are taught and
502 H. S. Jonker et al.
Downloaded By: [Jonker, Hanneke Schaap] At: 20:48 2 June 2008
found within the family and the (local) religious culture (cf. Hoffman, 2005
p. 133; Hoffman et al., 2004; Meissner, 1990 p. 111; Murken, 1998 p. 48).
Thus, the God image has both affective and cognitive, unconscious and
conscious, subjective and objective, as well as individual and cultural aspects
(cf. Schaap-Jonker, 2006).
Although the God image has a long tradition from a theoretical perspective, the
measurement thereof is still in its earlier stages (Hoffman, Grimes, & Acoba,
2005). A complicating factor is that there turns out to be no common language to
express the God image. Many people in Western Europe distance themselves
from traditional and personal images of God in favour of abstract and impersonal
images, speaking about God in indefinite and desubjective terms; what God does
is more important than what/who God is (Van der Lans, 2001 p. 348; Janssen,
de Hart, & Gerardts, 1994; Pieper & Van der Ven, 1998; Van der Ven &
Biemans, 1994). Religious and non-religious people, however, differ substantially
in this regard. Another complicating factor is that it is not the actual God image
that is measured by a self-report method, but only its conscious perception or
representation; respondents only express what they are able and want to
communicate about their God image on a conscious level (cf. Hoffman et al.,
2005 p. 7).
Although there are already many instruments that intend to measure the
meaning and understanding of God (Hill & Hood, 1999b), most of them do not
fit with an object relations approach, which is the theoretical background of the
God image, and the only one that does, namely the God Image Inventory, suffers
from psychometric problems (Lawrence, 1997). Furthermore, in the Dutch
language, there is only one validated measurement instrument, namely the
questionnaire on God images of the Nijmegen Institute for Studies in Empirical
Theology (Hutsebaut, 2001; Pieper & Van der Ven, 1998, pp. 66–68; Van der
Ven & Biemans, 1994, pp. 66–68). Unfortunately, this questionnaire ignores the
affective-relational aspect of the God image, and the theoretical, dogmatic
model on which it is based is not confirmed by empirical results (Hutsebaut, 2001
p. 376; cf. Schaap-Jonker, 2004, p. 139; Van der Lans, 2001, p. 356). In contrast,
the affective-relational aspect is central in the QGI.
Questionnaire God Image
The QGI examines an individual’s feelings towards God and perceptions of
God’s actions. The first dimension consists of two scales, namely positive and
negative feelings (e.g., security, anger). In Petersen’s original study, feelings
towards God clustered into three scales: security/closeness, feeling rejected, and
anxiety and guilt (Murken, 1998, p. 96). The dimension ‘‘God’s actions’’ has
three scales: supportive actions, ruling and/or punishing actions, and passivity;
passivity implies God doing nothing. Examples of the items of these dimensions
are the statements ‘‘God comforts me’’ (supportive actions), ‘‘God exerts power’’
(ruling/punishing actions), and ‘‘God leaves people to their own devices’’
(passivity). Several items were added to the original scales, such as items tapping
The Dutch Questionnaire God Image 503
