Divine hiddenness and the problem of no greater goods

John Schellenberg argues that God would never withhold the possibility of conscious personal relationship with Him from anyone for the sake of greater goods, since there simply would not be greater goods than a conscious personal relationship with God. Given that nonresistant nonbelief withholds the...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for philosophy of religion
Main Author: Teeninga, Luke (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2021
In: International journal for philosophy of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Theodicy / Highest good
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
NBC Doctrine of God
Further subjects:B Theism
B Divine Hiddenness
B Atheism
B Problem of no greater goods
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:John Schellenberg argues that God would never withhold the possibility of conscious personal relationship with Him from anyone for the sake of greater goods, since there simply would not be greater goods than a conscious personal relationship with God. Given that nonresistant nonbelief withholds the possibility of such relationship, this entails that God would not allow nonresistant nonbelief for the sake of greater goods. Thus, if Schellenberg is right, all greater goods responses to the hiddenness argument must fail in principle. I argue that there are good reasons for thinking that greater goods responses do not, for the above reason, fail in principle.
ISSN:1572-8684
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal for philosophy of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11153-020-09767-7