Divine Hiddenness and Evidence for God

Charity Anderson (Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Baylor University)

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English

Oxford University Press
30 September 2025

Ethics & moral philosophy; Nature & existence of God

Along with the problem of evil, divine hiddenness presents one of the most important philosophical challenges to religious belief. Theists and nontheists alike grapple with the question of why God's existence isn't more obvious. The aim of this book is to formulate the problem of divine hiddenness as an evidential argument. A central theme is that we can make progress understanding the epistemic import of divine hiddenness if we model the hiddenness argument using Bayesian methods. One advantage to using evidential tools to frame the topic is that theists can agree with some of the core ideas that motivate interest in the topic: such as, that it is surprising that God's existence is not more obvious than it is. This is a thought with which theists can agree-without being pressured into atheism. The approach allows individuals on both sides of the issue to find more common ground.

Divine Hiddenness and Evidence for God advances discussion on several fronts. It uncovers various difficulties that arise in selecting which hiddenness facts to focus on and relocates disagreement to evaluation of the significance of the evidence. A central hiddenness fact concerns the distribution of theistic belief. One result of examining this data in the context of an evidential argument from hiddenness is that some facts which are typically advanced as challenges to theism-such as that there is non-belief-can turn out to have a different impact when we look at more robust data.

The book as a whole raises an important methodological question: can there be evidence against God for theists? While some theists have taken a hard stance against claims that anything is evidence against God, this work suggest theists are better off conceding that some phenomena are evidence against God, and that theists should be open to the possibility that divine hiddenness is among such evidence.

By: Charity Anderson (Associate Professor Associate Professor Baylor University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 163mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 376g
ISBN: 9780198973072
ISBN 10: 0198973071
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 30 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Charity Anderson is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Her research is in epistemology and philosophy of religion, with a focus on topics such as fallibilism, epistemic modals, epistemic norms, evidence, and religious epistemology. Her work on divine hiddenness has won several awards, including the Marc Sanders Prize in Philosophy of Religion.

Reviews for Divine Hiddenness and Evidence for God

Charity Anderson's work on the hiddenness of God is some of the best I've ever read. Reframing the problem of divine hiddenness as an evidential problem and then exploring the consequences of doing so, this book breaks new ground and brings sophisticated epistemological reasoning to bear on one of the most important problems in the philosophy of religion. It is a must-read for anyone working on the problem of divine hiddenness. * Michael Rea, Rev. John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame *