Divine Motivation and Humanity

This Element examines theories on God's motives toward humans, especially those that privilege divine glory, holiness, morality, and love.

This Element addresses the problem of divine motivation from a Christian perspective. It assesses leading divine motivational frameworks concerning God's engagement with humanity, and it defends the Agapist Framework. According to this framework, God's actions toward humans are fundamentally motivated by God's perfect love.Theists maintain that God created the world and acts within it. However, opinions divide regarding the motives that rest behind and systematically structure God's actions ad extra, especially those actions pertaining to humanity. The major paradigms differ as to whether God is principally motivated (i) by the goal of glorifying Himself, or (ii) by the demands of His own holiness, or (iii) in perfect conformity to moral norms, or (iv) by perfect love. The challenge of providing a theoretical framework for understanding God's fundamental motives vis-à-vis creation constitutes the problem of divine motivation. This Element addresses this problem from a Christian perspective. It assesses leading divine motivational frameworks concerning God's engagement with humanity, and it defends one framework in particular: the Agapist Framework. According to this preferred framework, God's actions toward humans are fundamentally motivated by God's perfect love.