Open AccessGod and Individual Persons
Author(s) -
Pavel Butakov
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
shole
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.191
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 1995-4336
pISSN - 1995-4328
DOI - 10.25205/1995-4328-2021-15-2-966-977
Subject(s) - premise , argument (complex analysis) , philosophy , humanity , epistemology , object (grammar) , variety (cybernetics) , subject (documents) , theology , computer science , artificial intelligence , medicine , linguistics , library science
The atheistic Hiddenness Argument contains a controversial premise that a perfectly loving God would love every single person. J. L. Schellenberg, the author of the Argument, claims that this premise is necessarily true. However, many ancient theologians would disagree with the truth of this premise. In this paper, I provide evidence of the variety of alternative theological views from antiquity concerning the proper object of perfect divine love. The list of alternatives includes 1) the whole humanity as a collective subject, 2) humanity as a universal, 3) divine image reflected in human beings, 4) the community of the faithful, 5) a chosen people. Based on the disagreement between Schellenberg and the ancient theologians concerning the proper object of perfect divine love, I argue that the aforementioned premise of the hiddenness argument, even if true, is not necessarily true. Therefore, the key premise of the hiddenness argument turns out to be without support, and the Argument turns out to be unsound.