Egoism

Egoism Affiliation: Egoism is based on concern of one’s own self-interestsand motivation to fulfill the self. Egoism is an ethical theory in philosophy; it is also defined according to psychology and religion as well. The common goal in all these types of egoism is the fact that the motivation or morals are all on the point of view of the individual or individual’s activities and not that of others. There are different types of egoism: rational egoism, psychological egoism and ethical egoism among others.
Rational egoism is a philosophical principle that insists that actions are termed as rational only if they maximize the personal self-interests of an individual. Ethical egoism focuses on the morality of self-interest. It insists that people should be their own moral agents even when acting on their own selfish deeds. Psychological egoism focuses on motivation of the self even in carrying out deeds for others as long as they find a way to benefit directly or indirectly. Rational and ethical egoism are normative since they make claims of how things ought to be unlike psychological egoism that makes claims on how things are (Weston, 2011).
The Christian perspective of egoism is based on morality and examines the actions, behaviors and even thoughts of an individual. It bases this on the Christian foundation and biblical readings and examples. Christian egoism is what many religious individuals tend to follow and abide by. Egoism is mostly described also in terms of selfishness and hence an egoistic individual in the analysis and eyes of Christians is taken to be a selfish individual as he only thinks about himself first and bases everything first on the self before others.
Egoism according to Christianity when analyzed as selfishness is either good or bad. When it concerns selfishness about God being the only existing supernatural being and being above all other beings in this world, then it is not selfishness. However when selfishness involves thinking only about the self and putting the self above all the others, then it is a bad thing and is usually condemned by all the others as well as using the biblical scriptures. Examples from the bible are provided of how people who are and were selfish amounted to no good in the end and were usually punished in one way or another by God. They or their off springs and their generations were usually made to suffer for the selfishness in order to make people fail to make the same mistake again in future (Geisler, 2010).
People who are known to have egoism are mostly not considered to be dedicated Christians and fully logged into religion. This is because religion tells people what to do and this involves them not engaging in selfish behavior. The Ten Commandments for examples insist on removes focus from oneself to one’s neighbor. The prayer of our father also states being forgiven only after forgiving others. These are two very powerful examples of how Christianity discourages selfishness and hence any person who is selfish is not fully religious.
References
Geisler, N. (2010). Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options. New York: Cengage Learning.
Weston, A. (2011). A Practical Companion to Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.