I had two surprises doing this series. The first was I did not anticipate how comprehensive compassion was going to be. I started out simply seeking a broader Christian approach than nonviolence for resolving our society’s conflicts. Compassion expressed empathy but also a desire to alleviate the situation. It went so far as being willing […]
I decided a good way to bring this series together was to reread Karen Armstrong’s Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. Many regard it as the classic treatment of compassion in our time. My guess is many, if not most of our readers resonate with her position. Armstrong believes compassion is the basic teaching of […]
The most difficult theological task is explaining the atonement. There have been many theories, but none are completely satisfying in our day. I was surprised how frequently I turned to compassion in the past few months when trying to understand the crucifixion. It at least offered clarity missing in the traditional explanations. During the same […]
Right from the beginning, I regarded compassion as more than being emotional about something. I thought it could be a guiding light in overcoming our divisions because it involves empathy that considers what the other person or group thinks. It didn’t take long to realize the term is more complex. In the Bible, compassion not […]
I have been considering how compassion might be a guiding light for overcoming the deep divisions in our church and society. Underlying this quest is the conviction that we are in one of the major periods of change in human history, one that rivals the first-century birth of Christianity, the fourth-century adoption as the religion […]
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