Where does the concept of a “God-shaped hole” originate?

Question

There's a concept that I heard used many times throughout my life in regards to idolatry. The idea is that inside each of us is a "God-shaped hole"--a place inside of our hearts that only God can fill. If we try to put anything else in there, it won't fit (meaning, it won't fill the need we have inside of our heart/soul).

Where does this concept originate? Is it a biblical concept or just a fanciful rhetoric?

Answer 1

This is a great question, as in the fact that trying to trace these bibical origins are hard. First, let us look at the Acts 17: 22-27:

22 Then Paul stood before the meeting of the Areopagus and said, "People of Athens, I can see you are very religious in all things. 23 As I was going through your city, I saw the objects you worship. I found an altar that had these words written on it: TO A GOD WHO IS NOT KNOWN. You worship a god that you don't know, and this is the God I am telling you about! 24 The God who made the whole world and everything in it is the Lord of the land and the sky. He does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 This God is the One who gives life, breath, and everything else to people. He does not need any help from them; he has everything he needs. 26 God began by making one person, and from him came all the different people who live everywhere in the world. God decided exactly when and where they must live. 27 God wanted them to look for him and perhaps search all around for him and find him, though he is not far from any of us.

As you can see, when God created humans, he wanted them to look around for him and search for him. This is one of God's plans, and in doing so, he created this "hole" that cannot be filled by any other: in short, that "God-shaped hole" was created by God for us to look for him.

I have another verse as example; let us look at Ecclesiastes 5:10-12:

10 Whoever loves money will never have enough money; Whoever loves wealth will not be satisfied with it. This is also useless. 11 The more wealth people have, the more friends they have to help spend it. So what do people really gain? They gain nothing except to look at their riches. 12 Those who work hard sleep in peace; it is not important if they eat little or much. But rich people worry about their wealth and cannot sleep.

Answer 2

It may have actually come from a C.S. Lewis quote in Mere Christianity:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

This speaks of the inner desire within us that is unsatisfied by everything in this world.

Answer 3

Perhaps the notion goes back to St. Augustine of Hippo who wrote in his Confessions:

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

St. Augustine was a very rebellious man who took a long time to come around to Christianity and became a Doctor of the Church.

Answer 4

In 1670, Blaise Pascal published Pensees, which was a defense of the Christian religion. (It should be noted that this book was published after his death in 1662.)

In that book, he has a quote:

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ.”
- Blaise Pascal, Pensees

Since then, the concept has taken on a life of it's own and the phrase has been found throughout many Christian circles. (Recently, in 2002, a book was published with the title 'God Shaped Hole'.)

While other answers show biblical support for this concept, the concept itself is actually a non-biblical one.