Temporal Dynamics of Experiencing Reconciliation With God After Personal Wrongdoing: An Incident-Anchored Longitudinal Study of U.S. Christian Adults

Research on the psychology of divine forgiveness has expanded in recent years, yet most studies rely on cross-sectional designs and generalized measures that do not capture how forgiveness-related processes unfold following specific instances of personal wrongdoing. Guided by a Christian-sensitive relational spirituality model of personal sin, the present study used an incident-anchored longitudinal design to explore two central processes involved in experiencing reconciliation with God—engaging in repentance with God (ER) and experiencing absolution from God (EA)—over a 16-day period beginning within 24 hours of a self-identified wrongdoing. U.S. Christian adults (N = 175) who met the inclusion criteria completed assessments on days 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. Multilevel growth model comparisons favored a logarithmic trajectory for both processes, indicating rapid early increases that tapered over time. Although these two processes unfolded in parallel, ER was higher on day 1 and EA increased more steeply over time. Baseline relational spirituality variables predicted individual differences in trajectories of change: ER increased more steeply among participants reporting lower day 1 divine struggles, whereas EA increased more steeply among those reporting higher day 1 communion with God and lower divine struggles. Prospective within-person associations suggested asymmetric temporal dynamics for ER and EA: positive within-person deviation in ER more clearly preceded higher subsequent EA than the inverse, and positive within-person deviation in EA (but not ER) modestly predicted higher subsequent communion with God. These findings further our understanding of how experiences of divine forgiveness unfold following specific incidents of personal wrongdoing.