The Scope of God’s Love

Abstract

Chapter 5 concerns the scope of God’s love, specifically the scope of what might be labelled God’s supreme love: a love that values and seeks an individual’s supreme or highest good. Contrary to a tradition that stretches back to the early Western Church, it is argued that God possesses supreme love for each and every human being, and is thereby not limited to a select few. The universal scope of God’s supreme love, it is maintained, flows naturally from the value account of divine love defended in Chapter 2, especially when that account is spelled out in terms of God’s maximal perfection.