The Hiddenness of God

This monograph examines the philosophical problem of divine hiddenness, addressing why an omnipotent and loving God would remain concealed from creatures who would benefit from explicit awareness of divine presence. Rea engages primarily with J.L. Schellenberg's influential hiddenness argument, which contends that God's apparent absence from many people's experience constitutes evidence against God's existence. The work develops a sustained response to this challenge while exploring broader questions about divine transcendence, religious experience, and the nature of divine-human relationships.

Rea's approach combines analytic philosophy of religion with attention to theological traditions, particularly drawing on apophatic theology and mystical writings. He argues that divine hiddenness may be better understood not as absence but as a form of presence that exceeds ordinary human cognitive categories. The work challenges the assumption underlying many hiddenness arguments that God's presence should be immediately recognizable through standard epistemic channels. Instead, Rea proposes that divine transcendence necessarily involves modes of presence and absence that differ qualitatively from creaturely presence.

Central to the argument is a distinction between different types of hiddenness and their potential compatibility with divine love. Rea contends that certain forms of divine concealment might actually facilitate rather than hinder authentic divine-human relationships. He develops this through engagement with biblical narratives, mystical theology, and contemporary work in religious epistemology. The work critiques what it identifies as overly anthropomorphic assumptions about how a loving God must relate to creatures, suggesting these assumptions inappropriately constrain our understanding of divine action.

The monograph makes significant contributions to debates about religious diversity and nonbelief. Rather than treating nonresistant nonbelief as straightforward evidence against theism, Rea explores how different cultural and psychological contexts might shape possibilities for recognizing divine presence. His account attempts to preserve divine love's universality while acknowledging the empirical reality of religious diversity and sincere nonbelief.

The work's importance lies in its sophisticated treatment of a major contemporary argument against theism. By drawing on underutilized theological resources while maintaining philosophical rigor, Rea opens new avenues for addressing the hiddenness problem. His emphasis on divine transcendence offers theists conceptual tools for responding to evidential arguments from nonbelief while raising questions about the epistemic expectations appropriate to divine-human encounters. The monograph demonstrates how traditional theological insights might inform and complicate contemporary philosophical debates about God's existence and nature.