Michael Rea

Michael C. Rea is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, where he previously directed the Center for Philosophy of Religion. Trained at Notre Dame under figures including Alvin Plantinga and Peter van Inwagen, Rea works at the intersection of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and analytic theology. With Oliver Crisp, he was instrumental in articulating analytic theology as a distinct methodological program, arguing that the tools of analytic philosophy can be productively applied to traditional theological questions. His monograph 'The Hiddenness of God' (2018) develops a controversial response to J. L. Schellenberg's hiddenness argument, contending that divine silence need not entail unloving neglect once classical assumptions about divine personality are revised. Rea has also written extensively on the metaphysics of material constitution, the Trinity, and the doctrine of the Incarnation, including 'World Without Design' (2002) and collaborative work with Jeffrey Brower on relative-identity solutions to trinitarian puzzles. With Michael Murray he co-authored 'An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion' (2008). His edited volumes, including 'Analytic Theology' (with Crisp, 2009) and the two-volume 'Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology' (2009), have shaped the field's canon. Critics including Schellenberg and various continental theologians have questioned whether analytic theology's clarity comes at the cost of theological depth, and whether Rea's hiddenness response succeeds in preserving a recognizably loving God.