Divine Love and the Argument from Divine Hiddenness

Abstract

This paper criticizes one of the premises of Schellenberg’s atheistic argument from divine hiddenness. This premise, which can be considered as the foundation of his proposed argument, is based on a specific interpretation of divine love as eros. In this paper I first categorize several concepts of divine love under two main categories, eros and agape; I then answer some main objections to the ascription of eros to God; and in the last part I show that neither on a reading of divine love as agape nor as eros can Schellenberg’s argument be construed as sound. My aim is to show that even if – contra Nygren for example – we accept that divine love can be interpreted as eros, Schellenberg’s argument still doesn’t work.

Divine hiddenness: part 1 (recent work on the hiddenness argument)

“…Ebrahim Azadegan () distinguishes agape and eros as the forms of love God might possess. Agape is impartial, he says, unlike a relational love moved by particular qualities of the beloved.…”