Within the god-image literature, there is semantic ambiguity surrounding god-image-related terms. For example, some authors have written of the God image and the God concept (referring to the former as the emotional experience of divine attachment figures such as God, Allah, or Jesus; e.g., Lawrence, 1997), whereas others have written of God images and God concepts (referring to the former as affect-laden mental/neural representations of divine attachment figures; e.g., Davis, 2010). For the god-image literature to continue growing and maturing, definitional consensus and conceptual clarity are needed. Therefore, in this article, we present working definitions of the terms god images and god concepts, with proposed conceptual contrasts. We also summarize the four attachment-based conceptualizations of god-image development and dynamics, highlighting the implicit-relational-knowing correspondence hypothesis (Hall, Fujikawa, Halcrow, Hill, & Delaney, 2009). Last, we propose a model of the schematic activation of god images, based on Cognitive-Affective Processing System theory (Mischel & Shoda, 2008).

A s Hathaway (2003) has highlighted, within the broad field of mental health, the past 20 years have marked a significant increase in the clinical attention that is devoted to religious/spiritual issues. For example, the American Psychological Association's (2002) Ethics Code now includes religion among the domains of diversity that mental-health professionals must address in a respectful and culturally responsive manner (Hays, 2007; Richards & Bergin, 2000). Another such development is the inclusion of the Religious or Spiritual Problem diagnostic category (V62.89) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition-Text Revision (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; see Turner, Lukoff, Barnhouse, & Lu, 1995). As its name implies, this category is meant to be used "when the focus of clinical attention is a religious or spiritual problem" (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 685). For religiously/ spiritually oriented clients, god-image difficulties are a common Religious or Spiritual Problem that motivates them to seek psychotherapy (Allmond,

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We report findings from a controlled, manualized 10-week group-based spiritual intervention designed to improve God images, attachment to God, and narrative identity, using primarily narrative and experiential interventions. Participants were 61 Christian adults (n ϭ 32 intervention, n ϭ 29 matched controls) from the student population of 2 faith-based universities. Quantitative results (including data from self-report measures and quantified data from God-representation figure drawings) yielded nonsignificant findings. However, in posttest journal entries and during debriefing interviews, intervention participants reported experiencing positive changes in God images, God attachment, and narrative identity. These discrepant results are

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