Bellingham residents might not be used to having God compared to an awkward teenage boy who is too afraid to approach the girl he likes, but that was one of the metaphors Michael C. Rea used in his lecture, “The Hiddenness of God.”

Rea presented to a full house in Fraser Hall Thursday, May 21. People stood in the back and lined the aisles as the University of Notre Dame philosophy professor used metaphor and logic to discuss the questions raised because of God’s apparent remoteness in human affairs or why God does not reveal himself clearly to everyone on the planet.

“The Hiddenness of God” was the first presentation in the annual Lectureship on Philosophy and Christianity.

Western philosophy professor Dan Howard-Snyder, coordinator for the lectureship, said he hopes the presentation appealed to people in the Bellingham community and added to the discussion of religion in the area, not just in the class¬room.

“There’s no reason folks of all persuasions can’t be challenged and have their curiosity piqued as well,” he said.

According to the CIA World Factbook, the U.S. is 51 percent Protestant Christian, with the second largest religious group being Roman Catholics at 24 percent.

The rest of the population identifies as Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, unaffiliated or a different sect of Christian.

Howard-Snyder said the focus of the lectures will be on aspects of Christianity and the philosophy of Christianity for the first couple years. However, he said he was looking for ways to involve other religions and perspectives and incorporate a broader focus into the lectureship.

“I want to get everybody chatting with each other,” Howard-Snyder said. “Not just theists chatting with theists.”

The idea for the lectureship fell into his lap almost inadvertently, Howard-Snyder said. He said it was born out of a desire to bring to campus some of the philosophers his students in philosophy of religion classes have studied, but evolved into a general lecture for the community, which he decided to make an annual event.

Howard-Snyder said he has lined up Alvin Plantinga from the University of Notre Dame to speak about science and theism at the lectureship in 2010 and Michael Murray from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania to speak about the cognitive science of belief in God in 2011.

In his presentation Thursday night, Rea quoted from Mother Teresa and Fredrick Nietzsche on how God’s absence in their lives had affected them. Rea said Mother Teresa wrote in private memoirs that not being able to communicate directly with God made her doubt her faith, whereas for Nietzsche, the absence of God in his life seemed to make him dismiss the notion that God existed altogether.

Rea, who self-identified as a Dutch Calvinist, advanced several explanations for why God might choose to remain hidden, or not directly reveal himself, from most of humanity. He said he thinks it might be that divine silence is for humanity’s own sake, to allow the species to grow and learn by seeking after a god they cannot personally communicate with.

Divine silence and hiddenness might also be aspects of the personality of God, Rea said. He said God might simply be an introvert or have motivations and moods so far beyond human understanding that they will never be revealed.

Rea said the need people feel to communicate with the divine is not necessarily something to which God will respond.

“It’s my responsibility to change,” Rea said. “Maybe my objections to di¬vine silence are more my problems than [God’s].”

Rea said the few times God has made himself known to humanity have been through prophets, messiahs and holy texts, such as the Bible. He said Christians can look to those sources for guidance in how they can act because God, in his silence, is not going to communicate with them directly.

Phil Merrell, president of Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF), said he does not view God as being hidden, either in history or in the present.

“God revealed himself in a very real, tangible way when he came to Earth as Jesus Christ,” he said. “He’s not simply a best friend whose greatest hits were 2,000 years ago.”

While the “Hiddenness of God” was accessible to non-philosophy majors, Rea also spoke Saturday, May 23, at the seventh annual Northwest Student Philosophy Conference. His presentation was called “Understanding the Mystery of the Two Natures of Christ,” in which he spoke about the properties of divine figures and of human beings and the contradiction that both were said to have existed in the figure of Jesus Christ. The lecture was more technical in nature but still managed to fill Communication Facility room 110.

“The first talk was aimed at non-philosophers. The second talk was aimed at philosophers,” Howard-Snyder said. “Less technical and more user-friendly lectures with lots of Q&A are the norm for the lectureship series.”

Western senior Steve Steward, head coordinator of the conference, said he knew Rea was going to be at Western for “The Hiddenness of God” lecture and was able to convince Rea to speak at the conference as well.

The problem with the dual natures of Jesus Christ is that human nature has certain limitations, Rea said.

He said humans are mortal, know very little and are fixed in time and space, whereas God is not restricted to a particular time and place like humans are. Since Jesus Christ was human it is hard to decide if he was truly an incarnation of God.

“I think it’s an issue, but it’s a conquerable issue,” Steward said.

The Northwest Student Philosophy Conference is fully Western student orga¬nized and run, Steward said.

He said the $1,200 cost of the conference was covered by the philosophy department, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Associated Students (AS).

Howard-Snyder said the Lectureship on Philosophy and Christianity receives no funding from Western. He said the inaugural lecture was supported by Notre Dame University, St. Brendan’s Anglican Church located on 910 N. Forest St. and his personal contributions. Howard-Snyder said the lectures are projected to cost $3,000 per year and he said he wants to get more religious organizations and student groups involved in nominating and sponsoring speakers.

He also expressed an interest in having local mosques, synagogues and atheistic organizations involved.
Western senior Max Winderbaum is a member of The Freethinker’s Society, an AS club dedicated to open discussions of sometimes controversial topics, such as religion.

Winderbaum said the society would be interested in nominating a speaker for the Lectureship on Philosophy and Christianity but has little in the way of funds to support the speaker. He said a speaker from the Western community might be a possibility though.

About 75 percent of The Freethinker’s Society’s members are agnostic or unsure about the existence of God, Winderbaum said. He said they might consider nominating a speaker such as Western biology professor David Leaf to speak on a topic of interest to them.

Western senior Rani Shakh is the president of the Chabad Jewish Student Organization, an AS club focused on Jewish cultural and social events.

“We would be very interested in nominating speakers,” Shakh said.

Shakh said finding an expert who is knowledgeable about the Jewish perspec¬tive is important because some speakers tend to lump the Jewish concept of God together with the Christian concept of God.

Shakh said in the Jewish tradition, God is considered to be a universal con¬stant, not an older gentleman with a white beard sitting on a cloud.

“God is involved in everything,” Shakh said. “Everything that exists is him.”

The Muslim Student Association teaches Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam. They could not be reached for comment.

While it seemed Rea did not find many definite answers for why God remained hidden or why Jesus Christ could be both human and divine, he said both were interesting questions to consider.

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