Author: faithrootsdw

Once more with feeling: A further response to Bill James on empathy

Readers may recall that I responded to an article in Evangelicals Now by Bill James where he talked about “the problem with Empathy”.  Well, James  has offered a brief response in this month’s EN. I am afraid that I was rather disappointed by James’ response.  First of all, he does not really engage with the… Continue reading Once more with feeling: A further response to Bill James on empathy

Is home schooling default?

When I was at theological college, a few people seemed to have got really caught up in something that I found a little bewildering and surprising. They had decided that they should either home school their children or send them to a Christian school.  You also got the sense that this was not a personal… Continue reading Is home schooling default?

Is Empathy a feminist thing?

In the penultimate chapter of “The Sin of Empathy”, Joe Rigney writes: “We can’t adequately address the dangers of empathy without considering feminism and its impact on the church.”[1] He quotes from a speech that Calvin Robinson made in 2024 where he argued that: Generally speaking, men tend to be more theologically rigid, whereas women… Continue reading Is Empathy a feminist thing?

If not empathy, then what’s the real target?

It becomes clear towards the end of his book, that it isn’t really “empathy” that Joe Rigney has got in his sights.  The idea and practice of empathy is really a proxy for his primary target, wokeness. The concept of “wokeness” is an interesting one.  I’ve written previously on Faithroots about it.  The term started… Continue reading If not empathy, then what’s the real target?

Empathy and the balancing of virtue

Joe Rigney ends the first chapter of his book “The Sin of Empathy” by writing: “What then can we conclude from this initial survey? To begin, as Christians, we ought to resist any move to disparage biblical virtues. Sympathy, pity, compassion—these are biblical words with a long and well-developed history in the Christian tradition. The… Continue reading Empathy and the balancing of virtue

Muddying the waters of empathy

Joe Rigney in his book  “The sin of empathy” suggests that “empathy” is a difficult word to define.  He observes that it is a fairly recent entry into the English language.  “The term “empathy” itself is very recent. It was introduced into English in the early twentieth century in the field of aesthetics. It originally… Continue reading Muddying the waters of empathy

The sin of root fallacy

In the first chapter of his book, “The Sin of Empathy”, Joe Rigney’s starting point is that in Hebrews 4:15, the writer talks about Christ sympathising with us in regards to our weakness.  However, the NIV uses the word “empathise.” Rigney writes: .” The Greek word in question is sympathizo, which makes the English cognate… Continue reading The sin of root fallacy

Are we really not meant to show compassion sometimes?  Part 1 of an engagement with Joe Rigney’s book “The sin of empathy”

I wrote recently in response to an article in Evangelicals Now about the supposed problem with empathy.  The idea that we have a problem with empathy seems to be particularly driven by an American author, Joe Rigney. He has written a book called “The sin of empathy.”  Actually, it’s a lot more complicated than that.… Continue reading Are we really not meant to show compassion sometimes?  Part 1 of an engagement with Joe Rigney’s book “The sin of empathy”