Hiddenness and Transcendence

Abstract

For over two decades, the philosophical literature on divine hiddenness has been concerned with just one problem about divine hiddenness that arises out of one very particular concept of God. The problem—call it the Schellenberg problem—has J. L. Schellenberg as both its inventor and its most ardent defender. This chapter argues that the Schellenberg problem is an attack on a straw deity. More specifically, it proposes that Schellenberg’s argument against the existence of God depends on certain theological claims that are not commitments of traditional Christian theology and that would, furthermore, be repudiated by many of the most important and influential theologians in the Christian tradition. The chapter closes with some very brief remarks about the implications of this conclusion for what is taken to be the real import of the Schellenberg problem.