On 'Divine Hiddenness'

 

The concept of ‘Divine hiddenness’ is regularly cited as one of the strongest arguments against God’s existence. It’s a term coined by the philosopher J.L. Schellenberg, in which he asked why God is not more evident or obvious, especially to people who are open to belief. If a perfectly loving God exists, then God would want to be in a relationship with all people, he posits. There are people who he claims are "nonresistant nonbelievers" - those who are open to believing in God and would enter a relationship if they could, but don’t believe due to lack of evidence or divine presence. Schellenberg concluded that a perfectly loving God would not allow nonresistant non-belief, and therefore He probably doesn’t exist.

One of the subsidiary themes in my book The Genius of the Invisible God is along almost opposite lines – that a key part of the genius of God’s cosmic narrative is that He remained so invisible or hidden in so much of creation, and that it is for our benefit that He does. While the book doesn’t directly address the ‘Divine hiddenness’ contention (I hadn't heard of it when I wrote the book in 2012) – it indirectly turns the objection on its head by showing how we should be thankful for any hiddenness God chose to exercise on creation. Or to put it this way, people talk about God not making His existence more obvious, but I don’t see it that way. Through Christ, God voluntarily enters the world to suffer and die for the sake of everyone, and then leaves His Holy Spirit so that those who believe in Jesus as Lord can have an intimate relationship with Him.

Perhaps those who don’t think God has made Himself more obvious are not thinking the right way about what He HAS done, and continues to do. Through the Incarnation, God has made an impression on the world that will last for as long as human civilisation. Think about what it’s like when a charity worker in the UK leaves their comfortable, affluent lifestyle and goes across the world to a region in a country that is mired in poverty and hardship. Through their support, grace, kindness and generosity, and through the relationships they build, they leave a legacy that far outlives their stay in the region. In fact, in some profound sense, the deepest connections last for as long as time is recorded.

I think that’s what God is like in relation to how the power of the cross endures, and how Christ's Incarnation, scripture and the Holy Spirit provide and equip us with everything we need to know who God is, to have a relationship with Him, and to counter the issue of Divine hiddenness.