Just a thought. In psychology the three main types of parenting styles are permissive (too much room for the kid to roam, not enough discipline), authoritative (the parent explain punishments to kids), and authoritarian (the parent punishes from a strong sense of rules usually without explaining the validity of these rules, i.e., why they help or hurt the child).
It seems to me that most fundamentalist and conservative Christians are more likely (read: far from everyone) to have God images that are authoritarian, where (importantly) God is seen as giving rules that satisfy him and don't have validity beyond this in terms of how the rules could help the person and breaking them hurts him. Sin is conceived as stuff you do that just upsets God, and not as something that causes intrinsic damage to the entire self of the person, mind, body, soul, and will included.
On the other hand, it seems that most moderate, liberal, and non-fundamentalist Christians are more likely (read: far from everyone) to have God images that are authoritative, where it isn't a matter of ticking off the cosmic all-seeing eye who has self-serving rules that have no rational justification in terms of what causes intrinsic damage to the entire self of the sinner.
In other words, conservative and fundamentalist Christians are more likely to view God more as "my way or the highway" (or hellway) without really explaining why the highway is worse, i.e., authority is to be followed for no other reason than because it's authority, whereas other Christians view God more as someone whose authority is to be followed not only because God is God but also because God's authority involves a sort of rationality for how disobeying him (sinning) is damaging to the self. I can't help but see this as largely a reflection of earthly parenting styles, where the style the child was exposed to becomes projected onto God. This is far from inexorable, given the number of experiences a person can have, etc.
This isn't at all meant to put any Christians down or elevate others.
It seems to me that most fundamentalist and conservative Christians are more likely (read: far from everyone) to have God images that are authoritarian, where (importantly) God is seen as giving rules that satisfy him and don't have validity beyond this in terms of how the rules could help the person and breaking them hurts him. Sin is conceived as stuff you do that just upsets God, and not as something that causes intrinsic damage to the entire self of the person, mind, body, soul, and will included.
On the other hand, it seems that most moderate, liberal, and non-fundamentalist Christians are more likely (read: far from everyone) to have God images that are authoritative, where it isn't a matter of ticking off the cosmic all-seeing eye who has self-serving rules that have no rational justification in terms of what causes intrinsic damage to the entire self of the sinner.
In other words, conservative and fundamentalist Christians are more likely to view God more as "my way or the highway" (or hellway) without really explaining why the highway is worse, i.e., authority is to be followed for no other reason than because it's authority, whereas other Christians view God more as someone whose authority is to be followed not only because God is God but also because God's authority involves a sort of rationality for how disobeying him (sinning) is damaging to the self. I can't help but see this as largely a reflection of earthly parenting styles, where the style the child was exposed to becomes projected onto God. This is far from inexorable, given the number of experiences a person can have, etc.
This isn't at all meant to put any Christians down or elevate others.
