PhD student Theis Schønning Johansen: Hidden Revelation – on the concept of Deus absconditus in De servo arbitrio

PhD student Theis Schønning Johansen: Hidden Revelation – on the concept of Deus absconditus in De servo arbitrio

Luther’s De servo arbitrio introduced a lasting tension in Lutheran theology between the concepts of Deus revelatus and Deus absconditus. As is well-known, Karl Barth opposed any metaphysical notion of Deus absconditus in his Church Dogmatics and Eberhard Jüngel stated that the notion of Deus absconditus could somehow seem to imply a contradiction in the will of God, i.e. God against God. In order to avoid this seemingly metaphysical dualism of God, Jüngel and Barth – with Luther – suggested that the structure of the revelation itself includes the hiddenness of God, namely on the foundation of the theology of the cross. The knowledge of this hiddenness relies solely on faith given by God. According to Barth’s and Jüngel’s interpretations, faith is the ability to see through the apparent tension between Deus revelatus and Deus absconditus and thus the ability to perceive the divine truth sub contrario. The question that I would like to pose in this presentation is whether this notion of faith and the hiddenness of God sufficiently represents the ambivalent experience of God that Luther actually propounds through the concepts of Deus revelatus and Deus absconditus in De servo arbitrio.

Afternoon-seminar (we speak English, when the title is in English, if it is in Danish, the paper is in Danish and the language of the seminar is mixed)

All seminars can be followed over zoom: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/7217059883?pwd=eUhEeENrSFRjNDFiZHNsMjQwOTJxUT09