Divine Hiddenness: Why is God Far From Us?
How Orthodox theology provides a unique and compelling answer to Divine Hiddenness.
It is my opinion that the problem of “divine hiddenness”1 is the most compelling argument against theism, and one to which many contemporary Christian philosophers fail to give a compelling answer. The argument has been explained in different ways throughout the history of philosophy, but it essentially asks the question; if God exists, where is He? Why can’t I see Him? Why does He not talk to me? Why does He appear so absent from the world? In this article I want to address two different forms of the argument which I am going to call the ontological formulation, and the epistemological formulation.
Ontological Formulation
For those unfamiliar, ontology is the field of metaphysics related to being. The question of what makes a thing a thing, and not another thing, or related to another thing, or sharing the same category as another thing, but still distinct from the other thing. Basically, what does it mean to be something. Okay, how does this relate to divine hiddenness? Well, consider the following argument;
Premise 1: For something to exist it must exist in a manner which is perceivable by the physical senses2 and provable by natural science.
Premise 2: God is not perceivable by the physical senses, nor provable by natural science.
Conclusion: Therefore, God does not exist.
This is is an ontological claim. If God exists, He must exist in a certain way, He does not exist in that way, therefore He does not exist. Unfortunately, this type of argument has led many to claim that “science has disproved God”. This is a big problem. You might have guessed that I’m going to take issue with the first premise, in which there several problematic assumptions.
First, it assumes that God is on the same ontological hierarchy of being that we exist on. The claim is essentially that God exists in the same way we do. This could not be further from the truth;
“Everything that derives its existence from participation in some other reality, presupposes the ontological priority of that other reality. Thus it is clear that the divine Cause of created beings–is incomparably superior to all such beings in every way, since by nature its existence is prior to theirs and they presuppose its ontological priority. It does not exist as a being with accidents, because if that were the case the divine would be composite, its own existence receiving completion from the existence of created beings. On the contrary, it exists as the beyond-beingness of being. For if artists in their art conceive the shapes of those things which they produce, and if universal nature conceives the forms of the things within it, how much more does God Himself bring into existence out of nothing the very being of all created things, since He is beyond being and even infinitely transcends the attribution of beyond-beingness. For it is He who has yoked the sciences to the arts so that shapes might be devised; it is He who has given to nature the energy which produces its forms, and who has established the very is-ness of beings by virtue of which they exist.” (The Divine Economy, St Maximus the Confessor)
Unfortunately, the genius of St Maximus and other Church Fathers has been ignored by many Christian philosophers today (especially Protestant philosophers), which leads them to conceive of God as a “maximally great being”3, instead of a being beyond being itself.4 This leads them to seek to prove that attributes of God such as His “justice” or “omni-benevolence” don’t create internal incoherancies, as if God is “just” in the same way humans understand justice. This way of speaking about God fails to make the proper distinction between God and His creation, and is totally foreign to Orthodox theology.
God is not part of creation, and exists on a different ontological field than creation. He is timeless5, space-less, immaterial, incomprehensible, and utterly transcendent.6 In fact we could say that God doesn’t actually exist, if we mean that He exists in the same way we do. Why would we expect Him to be perceivable to the physical senses or provable by natural science then? Well, we wouldn’t, and shouldn’t.
The second consideration to make is about what I have heard called “death by holiness”7. This is a foreign concept to many so bear with me. Death by holiness is a biblical concept in which we see the holiness of God as something that can be dangerous. If we come into contact with sacred things in an unworthy manner, we can face real consequences. This is an ontological reality. The presence of God can either be a really great experience, or an awful one, depending on our spiritual state.8 Therefore, at different times God has removed His presence from His creation in order to protect us. Therefore, if we sense that God is absent from our life, we ought to be grateful. Metropolitan Anthony Bloom has this to say;
“A meeting face to face with God is always a moment of judgment for us. We cannot meet God in prayer or in meditation or in contemplation and not be either saved or condemned. I do not mean this in major terms of eternal damnation or eternal salvation already given and received, but it is always a critical moment, a crisis. ‘Crisis’ comes from the Greek and means ‘judgment.’ To meet God face to face in prayer is a critical moment in our lives, and thanks be to Him that He does not always present Himself to us when we wish to meet Him, because we might not be able to endure such a meeting. Remember the many passages in Scripture in which we are told how bad it is to find oneself face to face with God, because God is power, God is truth, God is purity. Therefore, the first thought we ought to have when we do not tangibly perceive the divine presence, is a thought of gratitude. God is merciful; He does not come in an untimely way. He gives us a chance to judge ourselves, to understand, and not to come into His presence at a moment when it would mean condemnation.” (Beginning to Pray)9
With this mind we must be cautious of asking to God to reveal himself or come down from the heavens and announce himself to the world, because that could mean seriously negative consequences for us. In fact, that’s what the end of the world will be like, that’s what “judgement day” is. God’s presence can be dangerous, and so asking for it is rarely a good idea.
After addressing the ontological formulation, let’s move on to the epistemological.
Epistemological Formulation
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy which deals which questions of knowledge. The strongest form of this type of argument, in my opinion is J.L. Schellenberg’s argument from non-resistant non-belief10, which is as follows;
Premise 1: There are people who are capable of relating personally to God but who, through no fault of their own, fail to believe.
Premise 2: If there is a personal God who is unsurpassably great, then there are no such people.
Conclusion: Therefore, there is no such God.
This begs the question, what does it mean to believe in God? Well once again, much of modern Christian philosophy has gotten this wrong. Influenced by the enlightenment, many people simply take for granted the concept that belief in God, or faith, can be defined as intellectual assent to a logical proposition. In fact, for much of Protestantism, to be Christian (and often to be saved)11 is synonymous with intellectually assenting to a set of propositions.
This is not the mindset of the Orthodox Christian. For us, faith is better defined as faithfulness.12 What matters is not so much what we believe, but what we do. In fact, believing the right things is only really important in so far as it changes how you behave. Subscribing to the logical proposition “God exists” is useless if it has no practical bearing on your life. Equally, living your life as if God exists, even if you are unsure about the logical proposition, is much more valuable.13 Being a Christian therefore is not so much about intellectually assenting to the proposition “God exists”, but rather to live in faithfulness to God. Faith is not merely about believing in God in abstraction, but coming to know a person (Christ).
What’s important to Schellenberg in his argument is that is seems that there are lots of people who don’t believe in God, and that this is a problem. But this is based on the assumption I’ve outlined above. For the Orthodox however, knowing God is about communion through faithfulness. God completely transcends our rational faculties, and so to say that we know (or believe in) God intellectually, is incoherent. Consider the following quote from St John of Damascus;
“But neither do we know, nor can we tell, what the essence of God is, or how it is in all, or how the Only-begotten Son and God, having emptied Himself, became Man of virgin blood, made by another law contrary to nature, or how He walked with dry feet upon the waters. It is not within our capacity, therefore, to say anything about God or even to think of Him, beyond the things which have been divinely revealed to us”. (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith)
So, if it’s not through the intellect, how do we come to know God? In the Orthodox tradition, the answer is the nous.14 This is the part of the soul through which we apprehend reality most directly. Although it could be described in opposition to the reasoning faculties, the nous is more supra-rational than it is anti-rational. This noetic faculty is how we come to know God. Knowing God isn’t a movement of the intellect, it’s not about knowing things about God, or even that He exists in some abstract sense. In the same way our relationship with our loved one cannot be reduced to knowing facts about them (how old they are, where they were born etc), but we come to know them on a deeper level, the level of the heart.
Unfortunately, due to expulsion from paradise, the subsequent fall of the world, and our personal sin, our nous has become darkened, influenced by the passions, and entangled with the rational function. Coming to know God then, can only be done by purifying the heart, and illuminating the nous. This is what the spiritual life is about. Most of us aren’t quite there yet though, and so our ability to perceive God is severely limited.
These considerations give us a good reason why so many people don’t claim to believe in God (in the rational sense), but it also shows us that it’s not as big a problem as one might first think.
Conclusion
I hope the above has provided a good answer to the two most common formulations of the problem of divine hiddenness. Comment below your thoughts and objections!
NB: Everything expressed in this article is merely my opinion, and should not be taken as authoritative in any way. I am not a bishop, nor a saint, nor an academic, nor a spiritual father. If anything I say contradicts the teachings of your bishop, ignore me, and follow him. Additionally, all my articles are living documents, and so may be updated or refined over time, as I learn more, or discover better ways of articulating my points.
By physical senses, I mean the “5 senses”; taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing.
“According to perfect being theology, God is to be defined as the greatest conceivable being, a maximally great being, or a being with all perfections. These definitions describe a being that possesses all compossible great-making properties. A being is said to have compossible properties when all of that being’s properties can coexist together in the same world without a contradiction arising. Moreover, this being’s properties must also be consistent with all of the other properties that exist in the world, or possible worlds, that this being resides in.” (Making Great-Making Properties Great Again, Phillip Mastoridis).
Some have called this “theistic personalism”.
This is what eternal means, not “endless time”.
This is why Orthodoxy places an emphasis on apophatic theology (theology by way of negation).
A good article on this topic is ‘Death by Holiness’ by Fr Steven De Young.
This is the foundation of the Orthodox teaching on hell.
Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason, J.L. Schellenberg.
This is the unfortunate logical end of the doctrine of sola fide.
A good article on this topic is ‘I am faithful to one God, the Father Almighty’, by Fr Andrew Steven Damick.
This might beg the question of why it’s important to be a Christian in a formal sense. The reason is because it provides solid grounding for ones life in Christ. The life in the Church provides the tools for salvation. There are plenty of people however living a life in Christ without being a formal member of the Orthodox Church. There are also plenty of Christians to whom Jesus will say “depart from me I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). Ultimately everyone will be judged in the same way, Christian or otherwise.
A good article on this topic is ‘The Function of the Nous- the Noetic Faculty’ by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos.