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?
Category: pastoral-care
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”
Pastoral Care and Counselling : Avoiding the gear crunching shift to prayer
One of the things that people have shared with me which they find hard when seeking to talk about what they are going through and struggling with is the way in which sometimes, we can be too quick to dive into “let me pray for you.” Of course, prayer matters, of course the person’s biggest… Continue reading Pastoral Care and Counselling : Avoiding the gear crunching shift to prayer
Pastoral Counselling: Take them to God’s Word
The unique thing that Christians have to offer in pastoral counselling is not our experience or wisdom, nor is it the latest methodology or theories in psychology and therapy. I don’t want to downplay those things. We have much to learn from what we may refer to as God’s common grace and general revelation. However,… Continue reading Pastoral Counselling: Take them to God’s Word
Why you should get your pastor a work mobile
My friend Steve Kneale writes here about why pastors should have a burner phone. I want to endorse his recommendation with two tweaks. First, there is a simple solution to his concerns about how he might be perceived (I note he didn’t include ‘double agent’ as one of his possible professions), instead of talking about… Continue reading Why you should get your pastor a work mobile
Does forgiveness require repentance?
There has been some discussion on social media this last few days about whether forgiveness requires repentance. In this video, I explain why I think it is necessary. I mention an article on the same subject by my friend Steve Kneale which you can read here.
PACE-ing pastoral counselling
Dyadic Development Psychotherapy as an approach to therapy for children and young people that have been through trauma. One aspect of this approach uses the anachronym PACE where PACE stands for This approach, whilst not an exact, like for like fit for adult pastoral care may stull help us to think about how we approach… Continue reading PACE-ing pastoral counselling
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