The Christian Call to Radical Altruism.
Here we will explore the Christian call to radical altruism through various historical and biblical examples. We look first at historical Christians who dedicated a large part of their life to altruistic acts and then define what we mean by altruism. We then turn to Jesus as the ultimate example of an altruist. We consider how our interpretation of altruism differs from that of some parts of the church.
Frances Willard: American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist
A few effective Christian altruists
Frances Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer and women’s suffragist. In 1879 she became the national president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, one of the first organizations of women dedicated to social reform.
Frances campaigned to give women the vote partly to combat the frequent violent acts against women by intoxicated men. She worked tirelessly, traveling on average 30,000 miles every year and averaging 400 lectures per year for 10 years.
Another example of an altruist who showed extraordinary dedication to a Christ-centered cause is William Wilberforce. He used his position as a member of parliament to address the issue of slavery in the British Empire and other important issues including cruelty to animals. Even after he resigned from his position in parliament due to ill health he continued to campaign for the complete abolition of slavery. This led to the Slavery Abolition Act which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire. William died just three days after hearing this news.
Altruism defined: selfless concern for the welfare of others
Frances Willard and William Wilberforce are two excellent examples of radical altruists motivated by Christian faith. The work that they did was not easy and they almost certainly could have pursued endeavors that might have benefitted themselves. They instead chose to pursue goals leading to better outcomes for others and did so with disinterested and selfless concern.
William Wilberforce: British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade
Altruism of Christ
Jesus’ life is a rich tapestry of selfless acts. There are numerous examples of Jesus healing the sick and caring for people who had been rejected by society. Perhaps the most selfless act in history was Jesus’ acceptance of torture and death on the cross so that the world would not need to endure eternal suffering. Altruism is at the centre of Jesus’ teachings and life.
If we want to emulate radical altruists from history, and most importantly, Jesus Christ, we must selflessly care for others. One of the more novel insights from effective altruism is that we shouldn’t constrain ourselves to only helping people in our communities but should look to wherever we can help people the most. Our motivation for doing good does not come from the warm glow that we often get when we help the people close to us but from trying to live like Jesus.
We have excellent examples in the New Testament that seem to support this view. In Luke’s Gospel, an expert in the law asks Jesus what he can do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replies “Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbour as yourself”. In response he then asks “Who is our neighbour?” and Jesus responds with the parable of the good Samaritan where a Samaritan aids a Jew who is in need.
One important lesson from this parable is that the call to be a good neighbour is not restricted to helping those in our community but, extends to anyone, independent of race or creed.
The Good Samaritan by David Teniers the Younger
Altruism today
Our world is more globalised now and we have the opportunity to help people even further away from us. It seems logical that Jesus calls us to help people in faraway communities.
Church-based giving often focuses on the good that we can do within our community. Whilst these acts are often valuable, there may be opportunities to help even more people if we think carefully about where the greatest need is.
Some people have critiqued the demanding nature of Effective Altruism. Is the difficulty of applying these ideas to our lives too difficult to be correct? It is important to remember as Christians that we are called to imitate Christ, the personification of selflessness. This is a much higher bar than applying the principles of Effective Altruism to our lives. We know that God knows us extremely well and knows that we won’t always hit the mark. We should not be put off by the ambitious nature of imitating Christ’s altruism. There is a Grace that forgives our mistakes. Instead we can feel inspired and excited about this call on our lives.
Closing remarks
If we want to imitate Christ, then we are called to be altruists. We should not be constrained to loving just those in our communities but instead seek to do as much good as we can. That could mean helping in ways which don’t give us the warm feeling when we help a family member or close friends. Altruism is not about making ourselves feel good but rather about caring for others. We’ve also talked briefly about how demanding we may find this goal and God’s provision of grace.
In the next section, we consider the importance of evidence and reason in going good.
— Written by Caleb Parikh