tephen Post thinks about love every day. But it’s not simply romantic or material love that’s on his mind. What really has his attention is a deeply unselfish love. The kind of unlimited love enshrined in the Golden Rule and espoused by the world’s great moral and spiritual traditions. But what kind of love is unlimited love? And how do you study it?

“Well, it’s the kind of love that parents have for their children, the kind of love that gets people down to New Orleans in times of need, it’s the love that turns a competent medical student into a fantastic doctor,” says Post, a Professor in Bioethics at Case Western Reserve. “The reality is that love is a fundamental motivator of human life, family dynamics, health and politics.”

Long considered a fuzzy, subjective concept unsuited for the hard-edged reality of empirical research, the concept of unlimited love has recently been drawn into the academic conversation. “The tendency in academic centers is often to study negative emotions or negative human circumstances. Until now, modern science has virtually ignored the subject of love,” says Post.

Founded in 2001 with an $8 million Templeton grant, the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love has initiated over 50 research projects at universities across the country, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and Case Western Reserve University. “These types of projects change the culture of the academy by bringing in something that it would have never brought in on its own. The idea that you can study something like love in very creative ways is empowering for people,” says Post.

During its short existence, the Institute has put unlimited love on a public health platform, shifted academic research into the field of love and drawn national media to the topic. The Institute has figured in reports on the subject by National Public Radio (NPR), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Boston Globe, and the Christian Science Monitor.

In 2005, the Institute was the subject of a week-long series of public lectures at the world renowned Chautauqua Institution, drawing in nearly 3,000 people to listen to speakers including Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr., Dr. Edward Hundert, President of Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Sherwin Nuland of Yale and Nobel laureate Dr. Gerald Edelman among many others. In addition to major funding from the Templeton Foundation, the Institute has attracted support from the Ford Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation.

Click here for The Institute for the Research grants on Unlimited Love.