America's Four Gods
 America's Four Gods: What We Say about God-- & what that Says about Us is a book published in 2010 by Baylor University professorsPaul Froese and Christopher Bader.The book was based on a 2005 survey of religious views and reports that Americans conception of God fall into four different classes.Further they report American's views on political moral and scientific issues are usually tied to their conception of God.The four different conceptions of God described in the book are the authoritative God the benevolent God the critical God and the distant God.Individuals who conceive of an authoritative God and a benevolent God both see God as taking an interventionist role in believers lives.They differ however in how they see God intervening.Those who conceive of an authoritative God imagine God intervenes to punish those who lapse from his rules and are likely to be white males.Those who conceive of a benevolent God imagine God intervenes to rescue and present alternatives and are likely to be female.Individuals who conceive of a critical God imagine he does not intervene in individuals lives but will judge them in an afterlife. 