Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason

Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason is the 1993 book in which J. L. Schellenberg introduced the Argument from Divine Hiddenness in its now-canonical form. The book is the first book-length treatment of the problem in analytic philosophy, and it set the terms for the subsequent literature.

The argument turns on the existence of “nonresistant nonbelievers”: people capable of relationship with God who are not actively resisting belief and yet do not believe. Schellenberg argues that the existence of such people is incompatible with the existence of a wholly loving God, since a loving God would be open to relationship with every such person, and openness requires the possibility of belief, which the existence of nonresistant nonbelievers rules out.

The argument has been widely engaged. Theistic responses have argued that the existence of nonresistant nonbelievers is more contestable than Schellenberg allows, that the love of God can be expressed through media other than belief, and that the standards of “openness” are higher than they need to be. Schellenberg has refined the argument across subsequent books. Margaret Halloran reads the 1993 version over winter break and finds it harder to set down than she expected.