The relationships between images of God, self-esteem, and spiritual well-being: A case study of Roman Catholic women

This dissertation examines the relationship between images of God and a personal sense of well-being on the part of Roman Catholic women. Theologians, remarking on this relationship, have often based their reasoning on personal experience or anecdotal “evidence.” Social scientists, making as if such an image could exist independent of a particular religious tradition.; This project examines this issue with the religious specificity of theology and the analytical rigor of sociology and psychology. Sociologists of religion have discussed the formation and transmission of worldviews through religious language; feminist theologians have argued that patriarchal God-language deleteriously affects well-being, while feminist or inclusivist God-language positively affects well-being; empirical psychologists have traced correlations between images of God and factors such as gender, age, education, self-esteem, parental relationships, and family environment. Bringing this scholarship into conversation, this study asks: (1) Do patriarchal images of God relate to lower levels of well-being? (2) Do feminist images of God relate to higher levels of well-being?; Two hundred and nine Roman Catholic women completed a Demographics Questionnaire, as well as three scales: The Patriarchal-Feminist Image of God Scale (developed by this researcher), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale.; Findings confirmed some of the claims made in non-empirical literature. Subjects who endorsed more patriarchal images of God scored lower on measures of self-esteem and measures of spiritual well-being. Subjects who endorsed more feminist images of God scored higher on measures of spiritual well-being, but not on measures of self-esteem. It is suspected that the spiritual well-being instrument measures a comparatively temporary sense of well-being, whereas the self-esteem instrument measures a more enduring sense of well-being. Finally, subjects with certain demographic characteristics (e.g., members of religious orders, spiritual directees) endorsed fewer patriarchal images of God, as did subjects with higher ratings on certain demographic variables (e.g., education, importance of feminist identity).; This study concludes that addressing more enduring problems of female well-being in contemporary Catholicism might require altering both these traditional patriarchal images of God and the specific rituals through which they are transmitted.