Life, death, and the hiddenness of God
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 64 (3):155 - 160 (2008)
| Abstract | Many philosophers have contended that (traditional) theism or supernaturalism suffers from what can properly be called the Problem of Divine Hiddenness (the PDH ). [See Howard-Snyder and Moser 2002]. Moreover, it is the contention of many proponents of the PDH that this “problem,” if, indeed, not just a component of the “problem of evil,” bears a striking similarity to the latter. Specifically, at the heart of this ostensible difficulty for theism is that Divine “Hiddenness,” like pain and suffering—or at least pain and suffering in the amount that the world contains—is precisely the opposite of what one would expect if there existed a (maximally great) supernatural Person. Accordingly, it is maintained by proponents of the PDH that supernaturalism is disconfirmed by the relevant “problem.” The aim of this essay is to establish that there is more than ample metaphysical warrant (of a sort overlooked thus far) for maintaining that the “hiddenness” of God is exactly what should be expected if theism is true. Thus, the conclusion we hope to secure is that the PDH has considerably less to recommend it than its proponents have thought, and, accordingly, that it fails to constitute an effective threat to supernaturalism. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,701 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesE. J. Coffman (2011). Hiddenness, Evidence, and Idolatry. In Kelly James Clark & Raymond J. VanArragon (eds.), Evidence and Religious Belief. Oxford University Press.
Justin P. McBrayer (2010). Skeptical Theism. Philosophy Compass 5 (7):611-623.
Daniel Howard-Snyder (1996). The Argument From Divine Hiddenness. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 26 (3):433-453.
J. L. Schellenberg (2005). The Hiddenness Argument Revisited (I). Religious Studies 41 (2):201-215.
Jonathan L. Kvanvig (2001). ``Divine Hiddenness: What is the Problem?&Quot. In Daniel Howard-Snyder & Paul Moser (eds.), The Hiddenness of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Daniel Howard-Snyder & Paul K. Moser (eds.) (2002). Divine Hiddenness: New Essays. Cambridge University Press.
Stephen Maitzen (2006). Divine Hiddenness and the Demographics of Theism. Religious Studies 42 (2):177-191.
J. L. Schellenberg (2010). The Hiddenness Problem and the Problem of Evil. Faith and Philosophy 27 (1):45-60.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads52 ( #19,987 of 549,124 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,361 of 549,124 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
