A Preliminary Taxonomy of Attributions to God

Christian undergraduate students generated causal attributions by which religious people may explain God's involvement in the outcome of situations. These attributions were rated by 187 other undergraduates along dimensions of locus (located in person, God, or environment); controllability (controlled by person, God, or environment); and stability. Factor analyses suggested that (a) God attributions were of 4 types: God's Will-God's Activity, Person Acts-God Responds, Social Environment Acts-God Responds, and Luck; and (b) people tended to rate locus and controllability similarly. Participants' tendencies to make different types of attributions were related to their intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. Implications for other work in attributions to God are discussed.