Taking the Divinity from the Divine: The Interaction Between Death Concerns and Religiosity on the Evaluation of a Human Jesus

AbstractQuest religiosity is characterized by an openness toward religious doubt and uncertainty as a way to grow existentially. The current paper examines how death awareness contributes to quest (vs low quest) Christians ’ reactions toward a Jesus depicted as doing biologically human actions (e.g., vomiting, bleeding). Study 1 evaluated quest persons’ reactions to either a humanistic Christ or a neutral Jesus passage. Essay evaluations were examined in Study 2 as a function of quest and mortality salience. Study 3 measured death-thought accessibility following a creaturely Jesus prime for quest individuals. Participants who scored low on quest were more negative toward a creaturely, rather than neutral, Jesus. These effects were exaggerated following thoughts of death. Finally, low quest persons reported h eightened death thoughts due to incarnational ambivalence. The implications are discussed.
Source: Journal of Religion and Health - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research