J. L. Schellenberg

J. L. Schellenberg is a Canadian philosopher of religion, Professor Emeritus at Mount Saint Vincent University and Adjunct Professor at Dalhousie University. He is best known for developing the argument from divine hiddenness, first systematically presented in Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (1993). The argument holds that a perfectly loving God would ensure that no capable, non-resistant person remained in non-belief about God's existence; since such non-belief demonstrably occurs, no such God exists. The argument has generated extensive analytic debate, drawing replies from Paul Moser, Michael Rea, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Travis Dumsday, and others, who variously appeal to soul-making, free response considerations, or skeptical theism. Schellenberg has refined the argument in subsequent works including The Wisdom to Doubt (2007) and The Hiddenness Argument (2015). In his trilogy—Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion (2005), The Wisdom to Doubt, and The Will to Imagine (2009)—he develops 'skeptical religion' or 'ultimism', the proposal that one might rationally hold a generic faith in a metaphysically, axiologically, and soteriologically ultimate reality even while rejecting traditional theism. Religion After Science (2019) argues that humanity is at an early stage of inquiry and that theism is premature. Critics charge that his evidential standard for divine love is too strong and that 'ultimism' empties religion of substantive content.