God and Love: Divine Nature in Philosophical, Theological, and Feminist Perspective

This dissertation draws on philosophical, theological, and feminist resources to offer a novel account of divine love, which renders a transformed view of God, where the divine nature is primarily characterized by love. I begin by arguing for the need of a feminist intervention in contemporary theorizing about the divine nature in Christian analytic philosophy of religion, contending that if we take feminist insights seriously, we ought to carve out a more substantial role for love in the divine nature. Doing so, I argue, requires offering a robust account of divine love and that, to offer such an account, we must first inquire into the nature of love, as such. Regarding love’s nature, I argue for two theses: love is a unified notion with several subtypes (including divine love) and love is primarily a matter of robust care for the beloved, which I further specify in terms of attention, investment, and nurturance. Relating this to the divine nature, I argue that divine love can be understood as a subtype of this account of love, with the stipulation that it involves expression of care fitting to divine perfection. Additionally, I argue for a view of the divine traits on which love plays an enlarged shaping role in the divine nature and show how this view finds solid footing in both Christian scripture and doctrine. Overall, on the proposed account, God is the ideal exemplar of personal love, and divine love is a matter of God’s robust care for creation. To deepen and concretize the account, I address potential objections rooted in concrete experience (i.e., suffering and differences in divine and human love) and draw on scripture to identify expressions, or forms, of divine love and relate these to the account. I conclude by overviewing some key implications of the argument.