Psychological egoism focuses on the 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 is normative since they make claims of how things ought to be unlike psychological egoism which makes claims about 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 offspring and their generations were usually made to suffer for selfishness to make people fail to make the same mistake again in the 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 example insist on removing 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 selfish person is not fully religious.
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