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
Category: ethics
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”
Forgiveness: Can I forgive someone who has not repented?
Here’s my response to a question I’ve seen asked recently.
Getting to the truth about abortion clinic buffer zones
There’s recently been a lot of attention on cases concerning the exclusion zones around clinics. Stories of people being arrested and charged for simply praying silently or holding up signs saying “Here to talk, if you want” have even reached the attention of JD Vance, the US Vice-President who sees them as an example of… Continue reading Getting to the truth about abortion clinic buffer zones
If Donald Trump has called the most important issue facing the World wrongly then where does that leave his Evangelical supporters?
Donald Trump seems committed to a “peace plan” for Ukraine which essentially involves Russia getting to keep much of the territory Putin’s aggression since 2014 has acquired, including Crimea. Charles Moore writes helpfully here about how this proposal compares and is in fact worse than the appeasement deal that Neville Chamberlain signed with Hitler at… Continue reading If Donald Trump has called the most important issue facing the World wrongly then where does that leave his Evangelical supporters?
Why we need a robust political theology in response to assisted dying
The Assisted Dying Bill has completed its committee stage which means that it should soon have its third and final reading in the House of Commons before moving to the House of Lords. There have been various reports on the bill’s committee stage in both the secular and Christian media. This has tended to focus… Continue reading Why we need a robust political theology in response to assisted dying
Do we need a political theology?
In my article responding to Joel Knight about his EN article on Donald Trump, I observed that he had raised the issue of Political Theology. I suggested that this was something worth enlarging on. My concern was that there were a number of potential ways to take the statement, some more helpful than others. Political… Continue reading Do we need a political theology?
The sin of writing bad books?
I’m about to engage with Joe Rigney ‘s book “The sin of empathy”. I am not intending a review so much as a detailed engagement with the book’s arguments. However, if you do want to read a book review, I agree whole heartedly with Dani Treweek who has written here What I wanted to do… Continue reading The sin of writing bad books?
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