•  2589
    Divine Hiddenness
    In Paul Draper & Charles Talliaferro (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, 2nd ed., Wiley-blackwell. 2010.
  •  2032
    The Hiddenness Problem and the Problem of Evil
    Faith and Philosophy 27 (1): 45-60. 2010.
    The problem of Divine hiddenness, or the hiddenness problem, is more and more commonly being treated as independent of the problem of evil, and as rivalling the latter in significance. Are we in error if we acquiesce in these tendencies? Only a careful investigation into relations between the hiddenness problem and the problem of evil can help us see. Such an investigation is undertaken here. What we will find is that when certain knots threatening to hamper intellectual movement are unravelled,…Read more
  •  1763
    Skeptical Theism and Skeptical Atheism
    In Justin McBrayer Trent Dougherty (ed.), Skeptical Theism: New Essays, Oxford University Press. 2014.
  •  1292
    Religious Diversity and Religious Skepticism
    In Kevin Schilbrack (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Religious Diversity, Wiley-blackwell. forthcoming.
    In this paper I argue that given the present state of relevant inquiry, the facts of religious diversity justify religious skepticism. Because of the diversity of religious claims, the denial of any detailed religious proposition is equivalent to a large disjunction of alternative claims. The same is true of the denial of metaphysical naturalism. And having typically acquired no detailed understanding of the whole panoply of religious views, religious believers and metaphysical naturalists are r…Read more
  •  1275
    God, free will, and time: the free will offense part II (review)
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 73 (3): 1-10. 2013.
    God, free will, and time: the free will offense part II Content Type Journal Article Category Article Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s11153-011-9328-z Authors J. L. Schellenberg, Mount Saint Vincent University, 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax, NS B3M2J6, Canada Journal International Journal for Philosophy of Religion Online ISSN 1572-8684 Print ISSN 0020-7047
  •  912
    The Epistemology of Modest Atheism
    European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (1): 51--69. 2015.
    Distinguishing between the old atheism, the new atheism, and modest atheism, and also between belief and acceptance, and belief and acceptance tokens and types, I defend the disjunctive view that either modest atheistic belief or modest atheistic acceptance, construed as type, is today epistemically justified in the context of philosophical inquiry. Central to my defence is a deductive version of the hiddenness argument and an emphasis on the early stage of philosophical inquiry that we presentl…Read more
  •  723
    How to Make Faith a Virtue
    In Timothy O'Connor Laura Goins (ed.), Religious Faith and Intellectual Virtue, Oxford University Press. 2014.
  •  537
    The Why and the How of Renewal in Philosophy of Religion
    European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 14 (1): 1-20. 2022.
    In this paper, we aim to get clear about why renewal is needed in philosophy of religion and how to achieve it. We begin with a fundamental distinction between someone’s perspective in the field and the perspective of the field, arguing that any philosopher of religion is responsible to both. Then we identify eight problems that should prevent the status quo in philosophy from appearing acceptable to anyone who takes the perspective of the field, as well as seven practical suggestions which, if …Read more
  •  322
    The atheist’s free will offence
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 56 (1): 1-15. 2004.
    This paper criticizes the assumption, omnipresent in contemporary philosophy of religion, that a perfectly good and loving God would wish to confer on finite persons free will. An alternative mode of Divine-human relationship is introduced and shown to be as conducive to the realization of value as one involving free will. Certain implications of this result are then revealed, to wit, that the theist's free will defence against the problem of evil is unsuccessful, and what is more, that free wil…Read more
  •  208
    Replies to Leidenhag and Trakakis
    European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 13 (2): 195-206. 2021.
    In this essay, I reply to the comments of Joanna Leidenhag and Nick Trakakis on my book Religion After Science: The Cultural Consequences of Religious Immaturity.
  •  182
    Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason
    Cornell University Press. 1993.
    In Part 1 of this book, the first full-length treatment of its topic, J. L. Schellenberg argues that when we notice how
  •  160
    The Hiddenness Argument Revisited
    Religious Studies 41 (3): 287-303. 2005.
    In this second of two essays responding to critical discussion of my " Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason," I show how an ' accommodationist ' strategy can be used to defuse objections that were not exposed as irrelevant by the first essay. This strategy involves showing that the dominant concern of reasons for divine withdrawal can be met or accommodated within the framework of divine - human relationship envisaged by the hiddenness argument. I conclude that critical discussion leaves the argum…Read more
  •  117
    Response to Tucker on hiddenness: J. L. SCHELLENBERG
    Religious Studies 44 (3): 289-293. 2008.
    Chris Tucker's paper on the hiddenness argument seeks to turn aside a way of defending the latter which he calls the value argument. But the value argument can withstand Tucker's criticisms. In any case, an alternative argument capable of doing the same job is suggested by his own emphasis on free will.
  •  110
    Paul K. Moser, The elusive God: reorienting religious epistemology Content Type Journal Article Pages 227-232 DOI 10.1007/s11153-010-9278-x Authors J. L. Schellenberg, Mount Saint Vincent University, 166 Bedford Hwy., Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3M2J6 Canada Journal International Journal for Philosophy of Religion Online ISSN 1572-8684 Print ISSN 0020-7047 Journal Volume Volume 69 Journal Issue Volume 69, Number 3
  •  99
    How to be an atheist and a sceptic too: Response to Mccreary
    Religious Studies 46 (2): 227-232. 2010.
    Mark McCreary has argued that I cannot consistently advance both the hiddenness argument and certain arguments for religious scepticism found in my book The Wisdom to Doubt (WD). This reaction was expected, and in WD I explained its shortsightedness in that context. First, I noted how in Part III of WD, where theism is addressed, my principal aim is not to prove atheism but to show theists that they are not immune from the scepticism defended in Parts I and II. To the success of this aim, McCrea…Read more
  •  92
    Reply to Aijaz and Weidler on Hiddenness
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 64 (3): 135-140. 2008.
    In this brief reply I argue that criticisms of the hiddenness argument recently published in this journal by Imran Aijaz and Markus Weidler are without force. As will be shown, their critique of my conceptual version of the argument misses the mark by missing crucial distinctions. Their critique of my analogical version of the argument misunderstands that argument and also misapplies the work of W. H. Vanstone. And their critique of my view that belief is necessary for a certain kind of relation…Read more
  •  92
    On reasonable nonbelief and perfect love: Replies to Henry and Lehe
    Faith and Philosophy 22 (3): 330-342. 2005.
    Some Christian philosophers wonder whether a God really would oppose reasonable nonbelief. Others think the answer to the problem of reasonable nonbelief is that there isn’t any. Between them, Douglas V. Henry and Robert T. Lehe cover all of this ground in their recent responses to my work on Divine hiddenness. Here I give my answers to their arguments
  •  90
    A New Logical Problem of Evil Revisited
    Faith and Philosophy 35 (4): 464-472. 2018.
    In this article I state concisely the central features of a new logical problem of evil developed elsewhere and take account of a response to this problem recently published in this journal by Jerome Gellman. I also reflect briefly on how theology can play a role in such philosophical discussions.
  •  86
    Prolegomena to a philosophy of religion
    Cornell University Press. 2005.
    Providing an original and systematic treatment of foundational issues in philosophy of religion, J. L. Schellenberg's new book addresses the structure of..
  •  83
    Pluralism and probability
    Religious Studies 33 (2): 143-159. 1997.
    In this paper I discuss a neglected form of argument against religious belief -- generically, 'the probabilistic argument from pluralism'. If the denial of a belief is equivalent to the disjunction of its alternatives, and if we may gain some idea as to the probabilities of such disjunctions by adding the separate probabilities of their mutually exclusive disjuncts, and if, moreover, the denials of many religious beliefs are disjunctions known to have two or more mutually exclusive members each …Read more
  •  82
    The Wisdom to Doubt is a major contribution to the contemporary literature on the epistemology of religious belief.
  •  80
    Divine hiddenness: part 1
    Philosophy Compass 12 (4). 2017.
    Only 6 years have passed since I last published a critical survey article on the divine hiddenness discussion. But more than 60 papers and books dealing with hiddenness themes have been published in that time. Not all can be addressed here. Moreover, to enable a reasonable treatment of those that will make an appearance, I shall break the present survey into two parts. I begin in this piece with recent work—including my own—on the argument descended from Schellenberg (), which started the discus…Read more
  •  78
    A New Logical Problem of Evil Revisited
    Faith and Philosophy 35 (4): 464-472. 2018.
    In this article I state concisely the central features of a new logical problem of evil developed elsewhere and take account of a response to this problem recently published in this journal by Jerome Gellman. I also reflect briefly on how theology can play a role in such philosophical discussions.
  •  64
    A Reply to Wykstra
    Philo 14 (1): 101-107. 2011.
    Wykstra’s paper defends two objections to my reasoning in The Wisdom to Doubt. One says that we in fact do take evidence to be representative of all the relevant evidence that exists when forming the judgment that it makes some proposition probable, the other that our judgments as to the representativeness of evidence are often justified, and can be justified even in matters of religion. Both objections are instructive but ultimately unsuccessful, as I show here.
  •  62
    The Hiddenness Argument
    Roczniki Filozoficzne 69 (3): 63-66. 2021.
    * This is a fragment of J. L. Schellenberg’s paper “Divine Hiddenness and Human Philosophy” originally published in Adam Green and Eleonore Stump, Hidden Divinity and Religious Belief, 23–25, 28. Reprinted by permission of the author
  •  61
    Divine hiddenness: Part 2
    Philosophy Compass 12 (4). 2017.
    Offered here is Part 2 of a two-part critical survey of recent work in philosophy on divine hiddenness. Part 1 surveyed recent development of the discussion initiated by my 1993 book on the subject. Here, I examine some related work that expands the scope of the hiddenness discussion. Some of the enlargements take further the discussion of Stephen Maitzen's work on the demographics of theism. Others introduce new hiddenness problems and ways of dealing with them. A third category of new work urg…Read more