The Hidden God, Second-Person Knowledge, and the Incarnation

The paper considers premises of the hiddenness argument with an emphasis on its usage of the concept of a personal God. The paper’s assumption is that a recent literature on second-person experiences could be useful for theists in their efforts to defend their position against Schellenberg’s argument. Stump’s analyses of a second-person knowledge indicate that what is required in order to establish an interpersonal relationship is a personal presence of the persons in question, and therefore they falsify the thesis that a minimalist requirement for a relationship between a man and God has to be belief in his existence. Recent works by developmental psychologists not only verify a hypothesis that a second-person knowledge is not reducible to knowledge-that, but also suggest that one needs a shared form of life in order to establish an interpersonal relationship. These two insights allow the author to formulate his own response to the hiddenness argument: only when God’s presence is non-explicit—for example, when God is hidden in a human nature—can a finite person enter into a personal relationship with him. It is the fulfilment of the requirement of being personally present that is the justifying reason for God to permit non-resistant non-belief.

A Theology of Paradoxes

Why does God’s Spirit grant the gift of faith to some but not to others? Erasmus solved the dilemma by admitting minimal freedom to the human side, a wrong use of free choice is to be blamed. This is the way of maintaining credibility in the justice of God. Luther’s solution to the dilemma was a distinction between the concepts of “the revealed God,” Deus revelatus, and of “the hidden God,” Deus absconditus. On the notitia level, i.e. in regard to knowing who is elected, we are in total darkness; it is a secret of the hidden majesty. We are restricted to the usus level of election, i.e. to revelation which says that God wills everyone to be saved. God’s will does not follow any human logic of justice, God’s will itself is the norm for itself and cannot be subjected to any rule outside itself. Asking why God does what he does is a concern arising from religious pride; the sovereignty of the divine will utterly annihilates speculation about any grounds for bargaining with God. Luther follows the paradigm of “the theology of the cross”: Anyone who has become “desperate about him/herself” is, paradoxically, already in the state of grace. This paradox brings about certainty of salvation: God has taken the question of salvation completely “outside ourselves” into his hands, this results in peace in the scruples of salvation, the believer is liberated from “the pestilence of uncertainty.” Luther prefers the Biblical term “election” to the philosophical concept “predestination.”

Rethinking Divine Hiddenness in the Hebrew Bible: The Hidden God as the Hostile God in Psalm 88

Divine hiddenness in the Hebrew Bible is widely construed as the conceptual equivalent to divine absence. This article challenges this influential account in light of Psalm 88—where the hidden God is hostilely present, not absent—and reevaluates divine hiddenness. Divine hiddenness is not conterminous with divine absence. Rather, with its roots in the ancient Near Eastern idea of the royal and cultic audience, the meaning of “hide the face” (סתר + פנים) may be construed as a refusal of an audience with the divine king YHWH. Building on this insight, I argue that divine hiddenness possesses a petitionary logic and develop a distinction between the experiential and petitionary inaccessibility of salvific divine presence. Divine absence and hostile divine presence denote the former, while divine hiddenness the latter. I probe the relationships between divine hiddenness, divine absence, and hostile divine presence, concluding that the absent or hostilely present God is not ipso facto hidden.

True and False Religions

Pascal is requiring his seeker to make a choice between Christianity and other religions. He argues that Christianity perfectly fits the blueprint of a possible true religion. He dismisses the claims of Islam. He emphasizes the difference between a purely philosophical theism and the knowledge of God through Christ. This knowledge is furnished by the Bible, which combines literal and figurative discourse in ways he links to his conception of the hidden God; the figurative reading allows him also to proclaim the essential continuity between Judaism and Christianity. Pascal’s arguments for accepting the divine origin of Christianity are briefly discussed: more generally, it is shown (in the light of Newman’s reading of them) that they are to be regarded as cumulative, mutually reinforcing; and that they are intended to produce conviction only in a reader already predisposed to accept them.

Religion

Bazin argues that miracles are inexplicable events that test science. Wary of the supernatural and transcendence, he does not approve of Pius XII’s standards of sainthood. All religions are fair game for social anthropology, even if they address mankind’s spiritual dimension. Irrational belief in God is necessary to maintain hope in eternal justice, since human laws are imperfect. Cinema’s illusionism turns irrational belief into a spiritual sensibility even for those who do not believe in any religion. Opposed to the dogmatic tendencies of any religion, Bazin argues that, in comparison to Jean Delannoy’s literary adaptations, Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest (1951) stands out as an avant-garde film that is a masterpiece. This film explores Blaise Pascal’s notion of the Hidden God, by remapping the senses in such a way as to mark a new stage in the evolution of cinematic language. It is an example of pure cinema, comparable to Vittorio De Sica’s very different Bicycle Thieves (1948).

Domniemane datowanie niedatowanych utworów Karola Wojtyły: Dzieła literackie i teatralne, Juvenilia (1938-1946)

Karol Wojtyła left behind many undated works. Determining the date of their creation sometimes requires a detective’s acumen. Based on the extensive information available in his poetry, meditations or plays, the context of their creation can be worked out quite accurately. This article is an attempt to determine the chronology of the early works of Karol Wojtyła, starting with the adaptation of The Stage Image titled “Christ – King” based on the Apocalypse of Saint John, his rhymed verses as a secondary-school graduate, through the series of Sonnets, and Symphonies – Unifications, then his autumnal poetry, works from the time of the war and occupation – sometimes forgotten by the very author – and ending with Songs about the Hidden God – the most mature poem from the period before his priesthood. Confirmations of the suggested arrangements often come from the recollections of people who were close to the young Wojtyła. His letters to his friends, the Kotlarczyks and the Szkockis, are also an endless source of information. The literary works of the future Pope, full of his deepest thoughts, as well as fears and premonitions, complement the various stages of his life, and thus help us to better understand not only the artistic creativity, but also the teachings, of John Paul II.

The Gospel of Thomas

This chapter details how the Gospel of Thomas, like the Analects, is also the posthumous collection of a charismatic teacher. The sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas are difficult, obscure, and mysterious. They challenge the reader to discover the true nature of the world through the discovery of the self, both of which are imbued with the divine. Hermeneutics in this way becomes nothing less than soteriology—the discourse of redemption itself. To achieve this, the Gospel of Thomas advocates a radical independence: readers must decipher for themselves the text's meaning rather than rely on any sectarian doctrine or even the authority of Thomas the compiler. Indeed, the theory of aphorisms in Thomas is that one attains secret knowledge of a hidden God not from a congregation of believers but through the inward meditation on the words of Jesus.