scholarly journals Desiring the Hidden God: Knowledge Without Belief

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Julian Perlmutter
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Personal Significance ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Hidden God

For many people, the phenomenon of divine hiddenness is so total that it is far from clear to them that God (roughly speaking, the God of Jewish and Christian tradition) exists at all. Reasonably enough, they therefore do not believe that God exists. Yet it is possible, whilst lacking belief in God’s reality, nonetheless to see it as a possibility that is both realistic and attractive; and in this situation, one will likely want to be open to the considerable benefits that would be available if God were real. In this paper I argue that certain kinds of desire for God can aid this non-believing openness. It is possible to desire God even in a state of non-belief, since desire does not require belief that its object exists. I argue that if we desire God in some particular capacity, and with some sense of what would constitute satisfaction, then through the desire we have knowledge – incomplete yet vivid in its personal significance – about the attributes God would need in order to satisfy us; thus, if God is real and does have those attributes, one knows something about God through desiring him. Because desire does not require belief, neither does the knowledge in question. Expanding on recent work by Vadas and Wynn, I sketch the epistemology of desire needed to support this argument. I then apply this epistemology to desire for God. An important question is how one might cultivate the requisite kinds desire for God; and one way, I argue, is through engaging with certain kinds of sacred music. I illustrate desire’s religiously epistemic power in this context, before replying to two objections.

On the Axiology of a Hidden God

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk Lougheed
Keyword(s):  
Correct Answer ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Hidden God

The axiological question in the philosophy of religion is the question of what impact, if any, God’s existence does (or would) make to the axiological value of our world. It has recently been argued that we should prefer a theistic world where God is hidden to an atheistic world or a theistic world where God isn’t hidden. This is because in a hidden theistic world all of the theistic goods obtain in addition to the experience of atheistic goods. I complete this line of argument by showing that theistic goods do (or could) indeed obtain in a world where God hides. In doing so I indirectly argue against proponents of divine hiddenness arguments such as J.L. Schellenberg. The correct answer to the axiological question turns out to be a solution to the problem of divine hiddenness.

scholarly journals We Believe: Group Belief and the Liturgical use of Creeds

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Cockayne
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Joint Commitment ◽  
Corporate Worship ◽  
Group Belief ◽  
The Church

The recitation of creeds in corporate worship is widespread in the Christian tradition. Intuitively, the use of creeds captures the belief not only of the individuals reciting it, but of the Church as a whole. This paper seeks to provide a philosophical analysis of the meaning of the words, ‘We believe…’, in the context of the liturgical recitation of the Creed. Drawing from recent work in group ontology, I explore three recent accounts of group belief (summative accounts, joint commitment accounts, and functionalist accounts) and consider the potential of applying these to the group belief contained in the Creed.

scholarly journals Common Worship

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Cockayne ◽  
David Efird ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Personal Preference ◽  
Corporate Worship ◽  
To Come ◽  
Better Than

People of faith, particularly in the Judeo-Christian tradition, worship corporately at least as often, if not more so, than they do individually. Why do they do this? There are, of course, many reasons, some having to do with personal preference and others having to do with the theology of worship. But, in this paper, we explore one reason, a philosophical reason, which, despite recent work on the philosophy of liturgy, has gone underappreciated. In particular, we argue that corporate worship enables a person to come to know God better than they would otherwise know him in individual worship.

Judaeo-Christian faith as trust and loyalty

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
MICHAEL PACE ◽  
DANIEL J. MCKAUGHAN
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Elie Wiesel ◽  
Biblical Language

Abstract Disputes over the nature of faith, as understood in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, sometimes focus on whether it is to be identified exclusively with trust in God or with loyalty/fidelity to God. Drawing on recent work on the semantic range of the Hebrew ʾĕmûnâ and Greek pistis lexicons, we argue for a multidimensional account of what it is to be a person of faith that includes trust and loyalty in combination. The Trust-Loyalty account, we maintain, makes better sense of the faith of exemplars, including Abraham, and fits well with the biblical language of faith. Further, a normatively appropriate combination of trust and loyalty towards others is a recognizable social virtue, aimed at promoting flourishing relationships. Finally, we consider how to make sense of ancient and modern exemplars of faith who protest against God, such as Job and Elie Wiesel, and argue that the Trust-Loyalty view is uniquely well suited to accommodate them.

scholarly journals Seeing the Face of Christ

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-169
Author(s):  
Derek S King
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
The Face ◽  
Hiddenness Of God ◽  
The Church

The problem of the hiddenness of God has at least two kinds: an experiential and an intellectual problem. Despite differences, a solution to either would require some account of how God is personally known. Yet for the Christian tradition, God is known in the man Jesus Christ. I suggest, then, a Christological reformulation of the hiddenness argument, and proceed to offer an account of how Christ is known. With special attention to the ecclesiology of Gregory of Nyssa, I offer an account of knowing Christ in the church. I then explore this as a response to the problems of divine hiddenness, and anticipate a considerable objection to my response.

Narrative, Liturgy, and the Hiddenness of God

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-171
Author(s):  
Michael C. Rea
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
Hiddenness Of God ◽  
Eleonore Stump

Chapter 7 draws on recent work by Eleonore Stump and Sarah Coakley to defend a response to the problem of divine hiddenness that is consistent with the claim that God does not permit divine hiddenness in order to secure greater human goods. Although this conclusion is consistent with the claim that God permits divine hiddenness for the sake of some greater good, it rules out the idea that whatever human goods may be promoted by divine hiddenness are the goods for the sake of which God remains hidden.

The Trinity as Transforming Symbol: Exploring the Trinitarian Theology of Two Roman Catholic Feminist Theologians

1994 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-294
Author(s):  
Patricia Fox
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
First Century ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The World ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

The article explores the Trinity as a transforming symbol for the twenty—first century. It focuses on the recent work of Catherine Mowy LaCugna and Elizabeth Johnson who offer analyses for the “defeat” of the doctrine of the Trinity and also seek to retrieve core understandings of the mystery from Scripture and Christian tradition. The article suggests that the Church today is being challenged to reform itself in the image of the trinitarian God, to become a community for the world.

Hidden God

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Rea
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Discussion ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Hidden God

This introductory chapter provides an informal characterization of the phenomena of divine hiddenness, briefly contextualizes the contemporary philosophical discussion of that phenomenon, and lays out in some detail what will happen in subsequent chapters of the book.

Transmission of Tradition, the Sensus Fidelium, and the Holy Spirit

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Church Architecture ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Book Of Kells ◽  
Holy Water ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Church

The presence of the risen Christ is actualized by innumerable traditions. This chapter begins by setting out twelve traditions or groups of traditions that embody or at least allude to the Christus praesens: for instance, baptism, the creeds, the Eucharist, Christian marriage, sacred music, church architecture, and such items as the use of palm branches, incense, holy water, candles, icons and other works of religious art, and, not least, glorious copies of the Book of the Gospels like the Book of Kells. The transmitters of Christian tradition include not only bishops and councils but also innumerable individuals and groups who have handed on the treasures of faith: for instance, writers, artists, and saints, not least the thirty-six doctors of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the primary bearer of tradition, and underpins the ‘sense of the faithful’, the instinctive insight of the baptized into their inherited faith.

The Faust Legend and the Christian Tradition

PMLA ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arpad Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Before And After

Erich Schmidt's brilliant essay, Fatisi und das sechzehnte Jahrhundert, gave the final sanction to the thesis, voiced by Goethe himself, that the Faust legend is in all its attributes a product of the Reformation. Despite recurrent protests, raised before and after the publication of Schmidt's essay, the Lutheran character of the legend has come to be regarded by literary historians as a dogma. To be sure, the universally Christian ancestry of Faust, Simon Magus, Theophilus, and other Manichæan and mediæval forerunners of the sixteenth-century Devil's Disciple, was unearthed by a host of parallel hunters; still, the Lutheranism of the legend has been upheld until today. Eugen Wolff's attempt to prove that the Volksbuch was a Catholic pamphlet met with little success. Although Adolf Hauffen conceded that there must have been a Catholic Faustbook also, the “genuine Lutheran tendency” of the legend, the triumph of faith over learning, was emphatically pointed out by Wolfgang Stammler in 1927; its Humanist and Lutheran tendencies were stressed by A. Bernt in 1930; and the familiar argument was reiterated by the recent work of G. Bianquis, who declared that in its form of 1587, and in all its subsequent versions, Faust's life is a Lutheran treatise.

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