Do we project our parents onto God?

In every way, Christ was transcendent God and yet intensely interpersonal. He was there connecting with the disciples. He did not hide himself from them. They knew him. They spoke with him, ate with him, walked with him. And what is so wild is that they were not intimidated by him in a psychological way. He did not show the intensity of his power. He was intimate, connected, real to them.

So when we begin to project onto God the psychological attributes we find in our childhood or in our own psychological makeup, we begin to lessen who God is. We begin to think God is like us, or God is like a parent, because this is what we have been shown or this is how I process life. In all these ways, we begin to lose focus on the transcendence of God.