<P> Altruism is central to the teachings of Jesus found in the Gospel, especially in the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain . From biblical to medieval Christian traditions, tensions between self - affirmation and other - regard were sometimes discussed under the heading of "disinterested love", as in the Pauline phrase "love seeks not its own interests ." In his book Indoctrination and Self - deception, Roderick Hindery tries to shed light on these tensions by contrasting them with impostors of authentic self - affirmation and altruism, by analysis of other - regard within creative individuation of the self, and by contrasting love for the few with love for the many . Love confirms others in their freedom, shuns propaganda and masks, assures others of its presence, and is ultimately confirmed not by mere declarations from others, but by each person's experience and practice from within . As in practical arts, the presence and meaning of love becomes validated and grasped not by words and reflections alone, but in the making of the connection . </P> <P> St Thomas Aquinas interprets' You should love your neighbour as yourself' as meaning that love for ourselves is the exemplar of love for others . Considering that "the love with which a man loves himself is the form and root of friendship" and quotes Aristotle that "the origin of friendly relations with others lies in our relations to ourselves," he concluded that though we are not bound to love others more than ourselves, we naturally seek the common good, the good of the whole, more than any private good, the good of a part . However, he thinks we should love God more than ourselves and our neighbours, and more than our bodily life--since the ultimate purpose of loving our neighbour is to share in eternal beatitude: a more desirable thing than bodily well being . In coining the word Altruism, as stated above, Comte was probably opposing this Thomistic doctrine, which is present in some theological schools within Catholicism . </P> <P> Many biblical authors draw a strong connection between love of others and love of God . 1 John 4 states that for one to love God one must love his fellowman, and that hatred of one's fellowman is the same as hatred of God . Thomas Jay Oord has argued in several books that altruism is but one possible form of love . An altruistic action is not always a loving action . Oord defines altruism as acting for the other's good, and he agrees with feminists who note that sometimes love requires acting for one's own good when the other's demands undermine overall well - being . </P> <P> German philosopher Max Scheler distinguishes two ways in which the strong can help the weak . One way is a sincere expression of Christian love, "motivated by a powerful feeling of security, strength, and inner salvation, of the invincible fullness of one's own life and existence". Another way is merely "one of the many modern substitutes for love,...nothing but the urge to turn away from oneself and to lose oneself in other people's business ." At its worst, Scheler says, "love for the small, the poor, the weak, and the oppressed is really disguised hatred, repressed envy, an impulse to detract, etc., directed against the opposite phenomena: wealth, strength, power, largesse ." </P>

Alturism refers to the capacity to get others to care for us