THE ´COMPARATIVE IGNOSTICISM´ OF THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD BY DAVID BENTLEY HART: ITS MEANING IN THE CURRENT PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

Abstract

The term "ignosticism" is not yet well known or used in the philosophy of religion and can be confused with "agnosticism". The term "ignosticism" was introduced into the theological-philosophical terminology in the 1960s by Rabbi Sherwin Wine. However, only very recently, with the publication of The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss (2014), by the American orthodox philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart, it could be said that there has been a more elaborated treatment of the methodological proposal that the term suggests. Nonetheless, Bentley Hart seems to ignore the existence of this word and his position is different from that of the rabbi. this article focuses on the concept of God as “necessary being", based on the "contingency argument", as stated in The Experience of God. For Bentley Hart the argument is not really refuted but misunderstood by the New Atheism, since the idea of a necessary being is conceptually inadmissible. This inadmissibility rests on a different way of conceiving and experiencing the world, which cannot be resolved by pure argumentation. This emphasizes even more the importance of first elucidating the concept of God before debating its existence, as "comparative ignosticism" recommends.