Affirm the Hidden God

Everyone is Susceptible to the Trap of Unexamined Spiritual Judgment

“Every religion which does not affirm that God is hidden, is not true.”
— Blaise Pascal,

This quotation from the French mathematician, scholar, and Catholic mystic Blaise Pascal (Pensées 584) may sound a little harsh, but then again, consider this line from the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible):

“Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.” Isaiah 45:15.

Pascal may come across as a bit judgy, but at least his idea had a long pedigree!

Perhaps why the Frenchman was so blunt was because of just how prevalent is the religiosity that insists it has “all the answers.” There’s an old joke that in heaven the Catholics and the Baptists are kept separated, because each group is convinced that only their kind deserved to be saved! Unfortuately, Catholics and Baptists are hardly the only ones who can fall into this kind of narrow, rigid, legalistic thinking — and so often, it seems it begins with the erroneous belief that God is not hidden, and therefore “our group” has the secret handshake to be the custodians of the whole and entire truth — unlike everyone else.

The reason why I bristle at the tone of Pascal’s comment is, ironically, he seems to turn even mystical uncertainty into a kind of theological litmus test! Religions that claim to be the only ones that can reveal the whole truth about God are certainly annoying, and possibly even dangerous (for example, when they interpret “Women, obey your husbands” to mean that battered wives should return to their abusers — and yes, that goes on). But even so, I’d rather not make a flat declaration (such groups are “not true”) but rather offer a radical invitation: beneath and beyond the belief in a “fully knowable” God, there always lies an invitation into the radical mystery that says, “I really don’t know.” Those who idolize certainty see that admission as a failing, but to mystics it is rather an invitation into humility and wonder and the cloud of unknowing.

Pascal’s warning isn’t just for “those” groups. No matter how liberal or progressive your faith might be, be wary of any drift toward “we’ve got the answers” — especially when it is paired with “unlike those benighted fools over there.” In my day, I’ve met Unitarian-Universalists and Buddhists who seemed just as dualistic as any evangelical fundamentalist. Joining the right group (or church) is rarely the answer: what we all need is a humble heart willing to embrace the mystery.