|
" The hidden heterodoxy of the hidden God: An analysis of the Deus absconditus in classical and contemporary Christian theology "
Daniel J. Peterson
T. Peters
| Document Type
|
:
|
Latin Dissertation
|
| Language of Document
|
:
|
English
|
| Record Number
|
:
|
53793
|
| Doc. No
|
:
|
TL23747
|
| Call number
|
:
|
3173131
|
| Main Entry
|
:
|
Daniel J. Peterson
|
| Title & Author
|
:
|
The hidden heterodoxy of the hidden God: An analysis of the Deus absconditus in classical and contemporary Christian theology\ Daniel J. Peterson
|
| College
|
:
|
Graduate Theological Union
|
| Date
|
:
|
2005
|
| Degree
|
:
|
Ph.D.
|
| student score
|
:
|
2005
|
| Page No
|
:
|
278
|
| Abstract
|
:
|
This dissertation argues that the language of God hidden and God revealed common to the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian theological tradition potentially betrays not simply two facets of the same God, but two different Gods. The terminology in particular of God as hidden “above” or “behind” God's revelation may result in a split between the transcendent or hidden nature of God apart from God's relation to the world and the economic revelation of God in relation to the world. To overcome the possibility of a separation between the hidden God and the revealed God, the present study proposes a corrective in the paradox that God reveals Godself as hidden within God's revelation rather than above or beyond God's revelation. Recourse to the paradox that God reveals Godself as hidden within God's revelation unites God hidden and God revealed. The analysis of the dissertation begins with a survey of hidden God language as it appears in present-day theological, philosophical, and scientific discourse. It proceeds to examine the use of hidden God language historically, positing a series of “swerves” in its development among four Christian thinkers: Gregory of Nyssa, Meister Eckhart, Martin Luther, and Jacob Boehme. These “swerves,” in turn, become a grid by which the study reads three contemporary theologians who employ the language of divine hiddenness (Jürgen Moltmann, Catherine Keller, and Vladimir Lossky). The overarching query of whether the three contemporary figures uphold the paradox that God reveals Godself as hidden, lifted as it is from Gregory of Nyssa and the early Luther in the historical survey, guides the analysis. The dissertation concludes that Lossky, though he rightly affirms God's absolute transcendence, fails to maintain the paradox of revealed hiddenness. Moltmann and Keller generally uphold the paradox of revealed hiddenness, but their mutual emphasis upon divine contingency arguably compromises God's transcendence. A constructive proposal follows which preserves the distinct but continuous “poles” of divine transcendence (Lossky) and divine immanence (Keller) by an appeal to the paradox of God's revealed hiddenness. The construct of revealed hiddenness arguably binds God's transcendent hiddenness and God's economic revealedness without ifying their distinction.
|
| Subject
|
:
|
Philosophy, religion and theology; Christian; God; Heterodoxy; Theology; 0469:Theology
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
T. Peters
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
Graduate Theological Union
|
| |