Hobbes’ God is Hidden and Idle

Abstract

This article argues that Hobbes’ contradictory references to God can be resolved if viewed through the lens of two prominent conceptualizations of God – the Reformist hidden God (deus absconditus) and the Epicurean idle God (deus otiosus). Contrary to scholars who argue that Hobbes’ God does not exist by nature and only comes into being through his representees, I argue that in the Leviathan, God may be incomprehensible or idle, but that He exists prior to His representees. With this characterization, Hobbes manages to assert God’s ultimate supremacy and challenge the authority of the Church while simultaneously reinforcing the necessity to submit to the sovereign. Establishing this point, the article places Hobbes’ theological argument in the context of two prevalent conceptions of God’s nature at the time of Hobbes’ writing and explains their political-theological relevance in the Leviathan. The article thus contributes to the continued debate about Hobbes’ view on God’s role in relation to the Commonwealth.