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Niebuhr is, of course, entirely justified in thinking that self-interest and interest in others perfectly coincide only in God, who alone is relative as well as absolute to all interests in all aspects. But this is no reason to deny that, as I've put it, "the love demanded from us, like the love given to us," is, "in its own way, unbounded." Although we cannot possibly love as only God can love -- so love–so that self-love and love of others completely coincide -- we coincide–we cannot legitimately exclude any creaturely interest from our interest, any more than we can employ anything less than all our powers in trying to realize them.

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