The hidden God


The hidden God refers to the Christian idea of the fundamental unknowability of the essence of God. The name comes from the Bible, specifically from the book of Isaiah: "Indeed, you are a hidden God, you God of Israel, the Savior.". This concept was particularly important for the thinking of Nicholas of Cusa, Blaise Pascal, John Calvin and Martin Luther.
Luther unfolded his views on Deus absconditus in his Latin work De servo arbitrio in 1525. But he had already hinted at this idea in his lectures on the Psalms and in his lecture on Romans ten years earlier. The opposite of Deus absconditus in Lutheran theology is Deus revelatus.