THE CHALLENGE OF SELF-GIVING LOVE

Conventional wisdom sometimes holds that selfishness pays off and is even necessary for survival in a competitive world. Joseph Bracken here challenges that view, arguing instead that self-giving love for others is the mainspring of human life and even of the cosmic process as a whole. Basing his argument on texts from Scripture, church tradition, and philosophical reflection on the nature of I-Thou relations, he concludes that the goal of self-transcendence is paradoxically located not in the self but in the well-being of the other.