The Challenge St. Paulelevated love over a faith that moves mountains (I Cor. 13). He diminished even laudable altruistic actions, such as giving away all one’s possessions to feed the poor, should they be performed in the absence of love (I Cor. 13:2-3). “Do everything with love” (I Cor. 16:14), and extol no loveless beneficent…
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matterscompared to what lies within us.” Oliver Wendell Holmes The convergence of evidence is striking in support of the hypothesis that benevolent emotions, attitudes and actions centered on the good of others are contributory to happiness, health, and even longevity in the agent of…
Introduction Let me start with a definition: Philanthropy is the joy of other-regarding service coupled with the moral alchemy of turning gold into something better. Contemplate these words from John D. Rockefeller, the product of small town upstate New York and of a first job as a fledgling merchant in Cleveland: “I believe the power…
THE SCIENTIFIC FIELD OF UNLIMITED LOVE In this presentation, I wish only to more systematically indicate the range of questions that might be studied in order to better understand the possibilities for a human future of unlimited love. How can we better understand human loving motivations and actions, with a focus on all that these…
Altruistic love (or “love of neighbor”) can be directed to kin, friends, strangers, the neediest, and even for enemies. To better understand the profound human phenomenon of such love, a highly integrative approach is needed, one that links the biological and social sciences with philosophical, ethical, and comparative religious themes. The word altruism derives from…