The Hiddenness of God by Michael C. Rea

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Hiddenness of God by Michael C. Rea Mark Mattes The Hiddenness of God. By Michael C. Rea. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. xiv + 198 pp. This book presents Notre Dame theologian Michael Rea's 2017 Gifford Lectures, dedicated to apologetics and sponsored by the [End Page 232] University of Aberdeen. Rea addresses the topic of divine hiddenness. Surprisingly, no mention is made of Luther even though hiddenness is a hallmark of Luther's theology. Instead, the author takes up hiddenness from the perspective of philosophical theology and explores matters such as the ambiguity of the evidence for God's existence, the obscurity of God's presence when people suffer, and the feeling of abandonment which some believers at times experience. For Rea, such realities are not grounds for atheism. Rea cites the example of Mother Theresa who as an adolescent claimed to have enjoyed intense, loving, and reassuring encounters with God but once she began her work with the impoverished in Calcutta felt abandoned by God. Rea notes that Friedrich Nietzsche would be apt to call out such divine hiddenness as cruelty. In contrast, throughout the book, Rea contends that such hiddenness is neither an injustice nor an anomaly but instead a natural result of God living out God's own life (6). He believes that we tend to inflate analogies such as a parent's love for a child with God's love for individuals. No doubt there is some truth in these analogies, but they have their limits. Given that "helicopter parenting" (my image, not Rea's) is the model some use for parenting, we should have some suspicions. Rea believes that an investment in such personalistic imagery can lead to unwarranted expectations about God's love. We do well to consider that the Bible portrays a continuum between personalistic imagery for God and God's utter transcendence. We too should honor that continuum instead of largely singling out the personal side in divine-human relations. If we could do that, we would not be trapped into affirming that divine hiddenness must somehow contribute to a wider good but could accept the ambiguities and complexities of the relationship between God and people (8). Since God transcends human experience, God eludes our ability to grasp conceptually. Honoring such transcendence, Rea feels that God can both perfectly love the world and, at times, be hidden. We should not impose creaturely standards of human parental love onto God. Conversely, divine transcendence does not rule out the human ability to speak about God, at least to some degree (50). [End Page 233] To know God's love, which Rea secures in the coming of Christ, we need revelation and not merely our own speculation about God. For that reason, we should acknowledge that perfect divine love is not grounded in human idealizations of love to the utmost degree (69). It should instead be viewed in how it is concretely given in Christ—a view not so different from Luther's. Additionally, though, Rea claims that God has his own goals for himself about which we are not privy. The scriptures do insist that God loves humans; but the overall biblical portrait of God is one of a personal being who has, in addition to an overwhelming interest in human good, a strong interest in living as God doing as God pleases. (75) As we see in Job, the Bible gives voice to lament when God fails to meet human expectations. No theodicy per se is expressed in Job, other than that God himself validates Job's complaint. Indeed, "validating protest can be an important way in which God shows love to those who occupy the perspective of the protester" (157). Obviously, Lutherans would highlight that God is hidden not just because he is not always understood but that he even at times intentionally hides himself so that we walk by faith, not sight. God is also hidden in the cross, a theme not so readily explored by Rea. If God is manifest as for us, then that revelation is best done in preaching. Much of Rea is not merely a cerebral exercise but also invested in spirituality. Luther's...