Volume 12, Issue 2, 2010
Theism and Ultimate Explanation
Travis Dumsday
Pages 357-371
Divine Hiddenness and the Responsibility Argument
Assessing Schellenberg’s Argument against Theism
J. L. Schellenberg’s “problem of divine hiddenness” has generated much discussion. Swinburne has replied with his “responsibility argument,” according to which God allows some nonresistant nonbelief in order to foster the good of human responsibility, with some people tasked with leading others to belief in God. Schellenberg has supplied detailed replies to Swinburne. My goal is to provide a new formulation of the responsibility argument that defuses Schellenberg’s objections.