"Divine Hiddenness and Middle Knowledge" by Brian Gray Chilton
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Page Range

59-78

Keywords

Middle knowledge, divine sovereignty, human freedom, John Schellenberg

Abstract

Within the spectrum of doubt, divine hiddenness becomes a problem regarding the love of God. Why would a loving God allow individuals whom he loves, if he loves everyone, to maintain ? According to philosopher John Schellenberg, the existence of rational nonbelief poses a problem for divine hiddenness which provides a reason to believe that God does not exist.

We argue that the problem of rational nonbelief does not pose a problem for divine hiddenness if one adopts the doctrine of middle knowledge, a belief first proposed by Spanish Jesuit Luis de Molina. We first offers a defense for the doctrine of middle knowledge, including a brief biblical defense, before arguing that a loving Anselmian God can coexist with a world where he permits reasonable nonbelief given his knowledge of how much evidence is necessary to bring a person to faith, and those for whom no amount of evidence would suffice.

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