J. L. Schellenberg
On Divine Hiddenness and the Silence of God
On J. L. Schellenberg
The Problem of God's Silence
Portrait: J. L. Schellenberg in the University of Edinburgh course Philosophy, Science and Religion, 2017. Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, CC BY 3.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons.
Philosopherborn 1959
J. L. Schellenberg
J. L. Schellenberg is a Canadian philosopher of religion who made divine hiddenness one of the central problems of his field. A perfectly loving God, he argues, would always make a relationship with God possible for anyone not resisting it. Yet some people who are open to belief look sincerely and find nothing, and so, he concludes, no such God exists.
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Recommended reading
Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job
by Hugh Ross, 2014
An exploration of the Book of Job from a scientific and theological perspective, addressing questions of suffering and God's apparent silence.
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The Hiddenness Argument
by J.L. Schellenberg, 2015
Schellenberg's refined and updated presentation of his influential argument against God's existence based on the phenomenon of nonresistant nonbelief.
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Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light
by Brian Kolodiejchuk, 2007
A collection of Mother Teresa's private letters revealing decades of spiritual darkness and doubt, offering a startling window into the problem of divine hiddenness.
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Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason
by J.L. Schellenberg, 1993
The book that launched the contemporary debate on divine hiddenness, arguing that a loving God would not permit reasonable nonbelief.
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Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
by David Hume
Hume's devastating examination of the arguments for God's existence, published posthumously. A masterpiece of philosophical dialogue.
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