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The Hiddenness of God addresses the problem of divine hiddenness which concerns the ambiguity of evidence for God's existence, the elusiveness of God's comforting presence, the palpable and devastating experience of divine absence and abandonment, and more; phenomena which are hard to reconcile with the idea, central to the Jewish and Christian scriptures, that there exists a God who is deeply and lovingly concerned with the lives of humans. Michael C. Rea argues that divine hiddenness is not a problem to be explained away but rather a consequence of the nature of God himself. He shows that it rests on unwarranted assumptions and expectations about God's love for human beings. Rea explains how scripture and tradition bear testimony not only to God's love, but to God's transcendence. He shows that God's transcendence should be understood as implying that all of God's intrinsic attributes--divine love included--elude our grasp in significant ways.
This book investigates the philosophical problem of divine hiddenness, questioning how the apparent absence of God can be reconciled with the theological assertion of a loving, personal deity. Michael C. Rea, a professor of philosophy, utilizes a rigorous analytical framework to examine the intersection of scripture, tradition, and metaphysical inquiry. He argues that the perceived problem of hiddenness stems from flawed human assumptions regarding the nature of divine love and transcendence. By re-evaluating these attributes, Rea proposes that divine elusiveness is an inherent aspect of God's nature rather than a failure of evidence.
What You Will Find
Scholars and philosophers frequently cite this work as a significant contribution to contemporary philosophy of religion for its nuanced approach to theistic arguments. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which requires a strong background in analytical philosophy to fully grasp the author's logical progression.
Page Count:
224
Publication Date:
2018-10-30
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
019882601X
ISBN-13:
9780198826019
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