Is God Hiding? Divine Hiddenness and Non-Sensory Perception - With Thomas Jay Oord

If God is real and loving, why do so many people who sincerely search for God come up empty? Thomas Jay Oord returns to help Josh wrestle with a question that has been nagging him for a while: the problem of divine hiddenness. They start with what Tom means by “God” (a universal spirit of love who is relational, uncontrolling, and not omnipotent) and why everyone should probably be an agnostic theist. From there they question the line between general and special revelation, explore non-sensory perception and Whitehead’s idea of prehension, and ask whether we might be experiencing God all the time without knowing it. Josh also presses the pastoral question: how is “you have the wrong idea of God” any different from “you don’t have enough faith”? Along the way, they talk Caputo and theopoetics, the Bible’s contradictory witness, material-mental monism, and why Aquinas keeps getting picked on. Tom also previews his talk on love and disruption at WISR’s November 9–11 conference and his systematic theology of love, which he’s writing chapter by chapter on Substack. Enjoy!

Love, Conflict, and an Unfolding Universe:

Get your ticket(s) HERE (wisrinstitute.org/2026-conference).

Resources:

Tom's Substack (substack.com/@thomasjayoord)

A Systematic Theology of Love: Vol. 1 God and Creation (thomasjayoord.com/a-systematic-theology-of-lov…)

Andrew Davis on Closer to Truth (closertotruth.com/video/andrew-davis-on-proces…)

*Special thanks to Josh Gilbert, Marty Fredrick, and Dan Koch! Love you guys <3*

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