Divine Hiddenness

God the Creator and Phenomenology
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-009-75968-7
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 350 Seiten, Gewicht: 500 g

Why is God hidden? How might God be pointed out? In this timely study, Chad Engelland provides an original and compelling account of why God the creator is naturally hidden and how God can be intended. Drawing on phenomenology, philosophy of language, and medieval thought, he explores these questions, arguing that if the God in question is the ultimate source of all things, then hiddenness is necessary. Only a creature, rather than the creator, can appear directly in experience. Nonetheless, God the creator can be named as the ultimate source of all through a deferred ostension, which is a way of establishing the reference to a hidden cause through some manifest effect. Moreover, the deferred ostension can be clarified not only through the phenomenology of absent authors, which is a special case of the problem of other minds, but also via the fulfillment of desire in giving thanks for all.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Engelland, Chad

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: the hidden God; 1. Divine hiddenness and phenomenology; 2. God the creator and the natural theological attitude; 3. Augustine: overheard confession; 4. Anselm: linguistic ostension; 5. Aquinas: interpersonal manifestation; 6. Deferred ostension; 7. Hidden minds; 8. Desire, wonder, and gratitude; Conclusion: 'God the creator' as deferred ostension; Epilogue: inconspicuous incarnation in the Gospel of Mark; Works cited.

Über Autor(innen)

Engelland, Chad
Chad Engelland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas and author of many books, including Ostension (MIT, 2014), Heidegger's Shadow(Routledge, 2017), Phenomenology (MIT, 2020), and Heidegger on Transcendence (CUP, 2025). He is the editor of Language and Phenomenology(Routledge, 2021). His articles have appeared in such venues as Journal of the American Philosophical Association, the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and Faith and Philosophy.