Self-Realization and Christian Ethics

A Self-Realization approach to Christian ethics has only two components of success: self-realization or improvement of self, and Christian ethics or helping other people improve wherever they are. This is what Christians know as charity.

The first component, or the self-realization approach, can be summed up by Sigmund Freud who warned, death comes not when our hearts stop beating, but when we stop growing. We are not human beings growing spiritually; we are spiritual beings in a human body. Progressive personal growth is an eternal self-improvement, the first true component of success.

If the truest success is but the improvement of self, and if the best form of self-improvement is virtue, and if virtue is the full use of one's powers along the lines of excellence, then we understand the argument's conclusion to follow: the truest form of success is the full use of one's powers along the lines of excellence.

The Pursuit of Happiness and Charity

The direct approach to pursuing happiness, however, does not always give us the desired results. Usually, we find genuine happiness by actively helping other people be happy. Charity is the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection. Charity is seeing the pure love of the friend we have in Jesus Christ, and in other people.

Charity is not just acts of benevolence, although it may be a prompting motive. Charity is everlasting love. Charity is perfect love. The desire to serve other people and help them improve wherever they are is the heart of charity. Those who feel charity help other people out of sincere love, without expecting something in return.

Charity is accomplished by looking for opportunities to serve others in whatever ways we can. Another way of describing these two components of happiness is: 1) realization of one's personal potential, and 2) perfecting one's interpersonal skills to socialize with charity beginning at home. These are the themes running through the fabric of this book A Self-Realization Approach to Christian Ethics.