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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Otros Autores: Grant, Colin, 1942- autor (autor)
Formato: Libro electrónico
Idioma:Inglés
Publicado: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press 2001.
Colección:CUP ebooks.
New studies in Christian ethics ; 18.
Acceso en línea:Conectar con la versión electrónica
Ver en Universidad de Navarra:https://innopac.unav.es/record=b42012612*spi
Descripción
Sumario: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.
Notas:Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
Descripción Física:1 recurso electrónico (xix, 266 p.)
Formato:Forma de acceso: World Wide Web.
ISBN:9780511488351