Histories Of The Hidden God

In Western religious traditions, God is conventionally conceived as a humanlike creator, lawgiver, and king, a being both accessible and actively present in history. Yet there is a concurrent and strong tradition of a God who actively hides. The two traditions have led to a tension between a God who is simultaneously accessible to humanity and yet inaccessible, a God who is both immanent and transcendent, present and absent. Western Gnostic, esoteric, and mystical thinking capitalizes on the hidden and hiding God. He becomes the hallmark of the mystics, Gnostics, sages, and artists who attempt to make accessible to humans the God who is secreted away. 'Histories of the Hidden God' explores this tradition from antiquity to today. The essays focus on three essential themes: the concealment of the hidden God; the human quest for the hidden God, and revelations of the hidden God.

In Western religious traditions, God is conventionally conceived as a humanlike creator, lawgiver, and king, a being both accessible and actively present in history. Yet there is a concurrent and strong tradition of a God who actively hides. The two traditions have led to a tension between a God who is simultaneously accessible to humanity and yet inaccessible, a God who is both immanent and transcendent, present and absent. Western Gnostic, esoteric, and mystical thinking capitalizes on the hidden and hiding God. He becomes the hallmark of the mystics, Gnostics, sages, and artists who attempt to make accessible to humans the God who is secreted away. 'Histories of the Hidden God' explores this tradition from antiquity to today. The essays focus on three essential themes: the concealment of the hidden God; the human quest for the hidden God, and revelations of the hidden God.

"If I had learned anything during the war, it was that our walk in the sun is brief, and so I resolved to wander from monastery to monastery, a sojourner in the world of last things." So poet and journalist Christopher Merrill tells us near the beginning of this gripping account of the transforming pilgrimages he made to Mount Athos, in Greece, in the aftermath of the Balkan wars of the 1990s. "It was time for me to come to terms with the way my life had turned out: the love I had squandered, the misgivings I had about my vocation and my faith, the dread I felt at every turn." In despair and longing to end his spiritual desolation, Merrill became one of a handful of visitors permitted entry to Mount Athos--a mysterious land that for more than a thousand years has been the secret heart of the Eastern Orthodox Church. There, amid the beautiful terrain, the ancient rhythms, and the spiritual rigor of this holy place, he found a haven. As Merrill's story unfolds, we, too, hike the rough trails of Athos, exploring a place and a way of life scarcely altered since medieval times. We share encounters with monks and spiritual seekers; visit Athos's twenty monasteries, where exquisite art treasures are sequestered; make our way to lonely hermitages that clutch the cliffs above the sea. Like Merrill, we come to consider existence in a new and different light. Part journal of personal discovery, part meditation upon the history and traditions of the contemplative life, Things of the Hidden God takes us where the temporal and the eternal intersect, where community and solitude coexist, and where centuries-old practices offer insight for how to live today.

A new edition of a major philosophical work This remarkable text, first published in 1964, was a landmark of its era and remains, in the words of Michael Löwy, a work of “remarkable richness.” Drawing on Georg Lukács’ History and Class Consciousness, Lucien Goldmann applies the concept of “world visions” to flesh out the similarities between Pascal’s Pensées and Kant’s critical philosophy, contrasting them with the rationalism of Descartes and the empiricism of Hume. For Goldmann, a leading exponent of the most fruitful method of applying Marxist ideas to literary and philosophical problems, the “tragic vision” marked an important phase in the development of European thought, as it moved from rationalism and empiricism to the dialectical philosophy of Hegel, Marx and Lukàcs. Here he offers a general approach to the problems of philosophy, of literary criticism, and of the relationship between thought and action in human society.

"... offers a range of approaches to cinema's explorations of a hidden or absent God through a group of essays by thirty-five writers who discuss some fifty movies"--p. 11.

Christianity is Facing an Authenticity Crisis... Why do we feel the need to hide our struggles, doubts, and fears? Why is there sometimes a disconnect between our faith and our feelings? Why do we sometimes wonder, God, what are you doing? Are you even there? For some, this comes from being handed a shame-based religion, for others, an image-keeping faith of rules and regulations. For others still, Christianity is a hamster wheel of performance. And this led me to realizing ... I can't do this anymore. I can't pretend. I can't hide the battle we all face in living as sons and daughters of God in a fallen world. I can't deny that more than I'd like to admit, I live from an "orphan identity," stuck in a false narrative of a distant God. But there is another way, and I'd be honored to share it with you. Once you embrace who you really are, that's when the fun begins. I've learned that the path to living "2.0" is through facing our haunting questions with honesty. It's by acknowledging the difficulty of transformation and the struggle to turn to a God who wants something more for you than guilt, shame, and performance. In The Hidden Delight of God, you will learn to walk in what Christianity was intended to be... Freedom. Grace. Authenticity. This book is an invitation for you to discover the simple, but profound truth that God delights in his kids, and that realization is the first step to killing your fear, finding your freedom, and taking back your life.

Encounter God in the Unexpected Joni Eareckson Tada, bestselling author, artist, and international advocate for people with disabilities, invites you to join her on a deeply personal journey as she explores the presence of a holy God in hidden places. Stories from Joni’s life shine in this collection of gathered memories. As Joni shares honestly about her sorrows and joys, you will recall quiet, out-of-the-way moments in your own life when God was present—both in happy and sad times. Words of encouragement, comfort, and insight will leave your soul satisfied and longing to be closer to a loving Father. Find encouragement and comfort in Joni’s words and experience. When you train your eye to see God’s work, you will find the Savior everywhere you look.

“The ways of God are not our ways, and the spiritual life is almost the contrary of what we fancy it.” So declares author Luis Martinez, the Mexican bishop and mystic whose wise spirituality, rooted in St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of Lisieux, shows you here how to enter into an intense, sustained communion with God. Bishop Martinez doesn’t offer new rules of prayer or demand that you abandon the forms of meditation that suit you. He simply reminds you that our God is a hidden God. To find Him, says Martinez, we have to seek Him, but through His ways, not ours. If we do that, the gaze of faith will always find Him right where He hides: in the spiritual desolation that led us wrongly to believe He was far away. Martinez shows you how to live in the obscurity of faith, detached both from consolations and desolations, and why this is best for your soul. The Christian who learns to do this leaves behind the perturbations of the world that shake the faith of those who don’t In the obscurity of faith, the Divine Master will listen to you, speak to you, and instruct your soul, but without the noise of words. Says Martinez: “Once you know how to profit from faith and to live by faith, you will always find God. You will have solved your problem; you will have discovered the great secret of the interior life.” Let these pages teach you that secret!