Is God's love unconditional?

This question has a long history of debate. Among Protestants, for example, one of the tenets of Calvinism is "unconditional election," which implies that God's love for His elect children is 'unconditional', while various Arminians (followers of Jacobus Arminius, as well as most Baptists and Methodists) hold that the gift of salvation and God's love is conditioned upon the "free will" response of His children. From the former tradition we hear things like "Once saved, always saved," and from the latter we hear about "backsliding" and "losing one's salvation." In Catholic tradition one finds similar oppositions between viewpoints that may emphasise divine predestination (as in St. Augustine's works) and those that emphasize human freedom, though without either position necessarily excluding the other when properly understood.

Carmello Fallace's recent article, "Is God's Love Unconditional?" (New Oxford Review, February 2008; rpt. Musings, March 10, 2008, by permission of the publisher), takes up the issue in the context of contemporary Catholic trends. He notices a pervasive emphasis today on "God's unconditional love," and asks himself: Is this true? Is this interpretation biblically warranted? He raises some very good questions. Here are some excerpts to get you started:

Is it true that, as many a modern homilist is wont to say, "God's love is unconditional"? It is true without question that the love of God, as stated in the Old and New Testaments, is rich, it abounds, it fills the earth, is unfailing, is faithful, is steadfast, it endures forever, is great, is higher than the Heavens, it surpasses knowledge, is better than life, etc. It is comforting and reassuring to hope that God's love is unconditional -- and it must be true, otherwise, many priests and homilists wouldn't say so. Right?

... unconditional love means, as far as God is concerned, that whatever we do -- good or bad -- does not matter, and we can expect God to love us the same as He always has.

Many claim that "unconditional love," or something similar, has a biblical basis, that it is written or implied in the Bible, or perhaps in some other Church document. But of the more than 800 instances of "love" in the Bible, none states or implies that God's love is unconditional. Furthermore, there is no official Church document that uses the word "unconditional" to describe God's love. There must be some mistake! some might demur. How could this be? Yes, there has been an enormous mistake, but it is not in the Bible or Church documents....

... If God's love were unconditional, there would be no Hell and all the unrepentant sinners, no matter how evil, would go to Heaven. So, what is God's love if it's not unconditional? It is covenantal. This means that if we want to continue to experience His love, we have to meet His conditions. God's love is eternal, it is constant, but He makes it absolutely clear what He loves and what He hates, and whom He loves and whom He hates. That God's love is unconditional is a modern deception invented by the devil; it is designed to blur our vision so that we can join him in the underworld.

Read the whole article here ... Your thoughts?