Major religious traditions agree in advocating and promoting love of neighbour as well as love of God. Love of neighbour is reflected in altruistic behaviour and empathy stands as a key motivational factor underpinning altruism. This study employs the empathy scale from the Junior Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire to assess the association between empathy and God images among a sample of 5,993 religiously diverse adolescents (between the ages of 13-and 15-years) attending state-maintained schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and London. They key psychological theory being tested by these data concerns the linkage between God images and individual differences in empathy. The data demonstrate that religious identity (e.g. whether Christian or Muslim) and religious attendance is less important than the God images held by young people. The image of God as a God of mercy is associated with higher empathy scores; and the image of God as a God of justice is associated with lower empathy scores.

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