away from a place or person’ (i.e. the locative sense) or ‘the lack of’ something (i.e. the sense of being deficient). Both senses of ‘absence’, locative and deficient, have implications for the present discussion. To speak of God as absent in the locative sense means to assert that an individual or community is alienated or estranged from God. Absence in the deficient sense allows for discussion of a lack of or infrequent reference to the deity in general, including non-mention of the divine name