Altruism and Christian Ethics

Separated From Its Anchorage In Religion Ethics Has Followed The Social Sciences In Seeing Human Beings As Fundamentally Characterised By Self-Interest So That Altruism Is Either Naively Idealistic Or Arrogantly Self-Sufficient. Colin Grant Contends That As A Modern Secular Concept Altruism Is A Parody On The Self-Giving Love Of Christianity So That Its Dismissal Represents A Social Levelling That Loses The Depths That Theology Makes Intelligible And Religion Makes Possible. The Christian Affirmation Is That God Is Characterised By Self-Giving Love (Agape) Then Expected Of Christians. Lacking This Theological Background The Focus On Self-Interest In Sociobiology And Economics And On Human Realism In The Political Focus Of John Rawls Or The Feminist Sociability Of Carol Gilligan Finds Altruism Naive Or A Dangerous Distraction From Real Possibilities Of Mutual Support. This Book Argues That To Dispense With Altruism Is To Dispense With God And With The Divine Transformation Of Human Possibilities.