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In what sense does the basileia tou theou rule or have power? In Christianity, Jesus is the icon of the invisible God. In Jesus, whose life is marked by compassion and forgiveness, we have an intuition of the divine order, but one in which, unlike the deities of Greece and Rome, he does not crush his enemies but is defeated by them. In 1 Cor 1, Paul captures this: the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Stronger in what sense? Paul's answer in 1 Cor 2 is divine violence, apocalyptic power. I argue that 1 Cor 2 compromises 1 Cor 1. The true power of God lies in the unconditional call for a kingdom without force, even celestial force, where the kingdom means what the world would look like if God ruled. The true power of God is subjunctive, and it is up to us to make that kingdom come true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on walking as an art form with a long and varied tradition in both literature and visual arts. Topics discussed include connection between walking and art in Francesco Careri's book "Walkscapes: Walking as an Aesthetic Practice," the Museum of Walking, co-founded in 2004 by artists Angela Ellsworth and Steven J. Yazzie to the advancement of walking as an art practice; and walks made with empathy and compassion heighten moral responsibility.

The concept of compassion, defined as suffering with, has a long history often entangled in that of the cognate term pity. It has proven to be a changeable concept that is not only responsive to but integral to historical change itself. This is because it is a sociable emotion, but, in the sense that it expresses a desire to alleviate the suffering of another, the emotion also expresses the desire to effect change. For this reason it is a particularly timely lens through which to consider the emotional effect of climate change upon local communities, and the new emotional regime taking shape in the Anthropocene – and the dawning of the Pyrocene – beginning with Armidale, New South Wales through the drought and fire of Australia's Black Summer of 2019–20, but extending beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eben Scheffler wrote much on poverty and social injustice, and this article focusses on his understanding of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts in order to comprehend the different dimensions of suffering and the healing ministry of the Lukan Jesus. Scheffler stressed that Jesus' life, from birth to cross, was immersed in suffering thus becoming part of the human condition of sorrow and misery, but Scheffler ultimately stressed the compassion of Jesus' ministry which continued in the early church and which must be reflected by his followers to all people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the ethical attitude of Christian evangelicals in a church in Britain and how it affects boundary-making of their community. Evangelicals in the case study seek to be accepting of the person and to refrain from being judgemental. The paper distinguishes between the person-centred ‘ethic of compassion’ and the norm-centred ‘ethic of purity’. The ethic of compassion consists in accepting another and recognising the dignity of another based on shared humanity. It is a frame of mind that combines moral intention with the emotions of empathy and sympathy. In contrast, the ethic of purity privileges adherence to the moral order of the group over considerations for the person. The ‘compassionate’ frame of mind weakens boundaries, while the ‘pure’ frame of mind reinforces them. The boundaries of a community result from the interplay of the two ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the physical realities and social attitudes concerning incarceration in the ancient world provides a fuller context to the New Testament’s unadorned and ambiguous references to people’s experience of being held in custody. The context is crucial for interpreting biblical passages that commend caring for prisoners, that reaffirm God’s strength and nullify the ignominy associated with incarceration, and that declare God’s power over the means and motives of imperial coercion. Such passages also compel the contemporary church to advocate on behalf of prisoners and to denounce the systems that regularly victimize them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing realization that the United States today is characterized by mass incarceration has begun to influence the interpretation of the Bible. This essay will focus on the influence of Paul’s letters on the court and penal system in the United States, especially the pervasive emphasis on justification (Rom 1–4) by which our penal system operates. This is followed by discussion of a more constructive model for restorative justice, based on the compassionate God in Romans 5. The essay suggests how Paul’s own incarcerations inform relational models on which ministry among prisoners should be conducted today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 25:39) is central to Christian discipleship. How does the concrete way that we express love enhance or diminish our ability to love? This paper brings Karl Rahner's theology of neighbor love into dialogue with a description of altruism and compassion provided by social psychologist, C. Daniel Batson, and neuroscientists Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki. For Rahner, grace enables and sustains love. In addition, a mutually reciprocal relationship of unity exists between human love for God, neighbor, and self Furthermore, Rahner contends prayer as one way to cultivate compassion for another. The scientific research presented here examines aspects of the relationship between self and other known as empathy and compassion. The research of Batson, Singer, and Klimecki shed light on the role of self-love in compassion as well as the ways our capacity to empathize conditions our potential for altruism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with a discussion about the meaning of compassion and its Judaic and Christian foundations, this article provides an understanding of how compassion builds and sustains community. It includes a model of the compassion process, a discussion of the barriers that prevent compassion from being expressed more freely, and examples about where compassion may need greater expression in our world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thinking about compassion helps to illuminate what is pernicious and beneficial about emphasizing personal responsibility for health. This article considers whether it is ‘compassionate’ to see someone’s disease as an embodiment of past faults. Two traditions, one Aristotelian-tragedic and the other Thomist and merciful, yield two ideas of compassion. The argument is that disease should not be conceived as something for which one is responsible in a way which risks the possibility of receiving treatment. But preventive medicine is conceived as a moral endeavour intertwined with the pastoral care of the sick, with discretion as to the manner and timing of any focus on responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the vision of care in Vincent van Gogh’s depiction of the parable of the Good Samaritan, this article offers a paradigm for inhabiting compassion. Compassion is understood in this article as a moral emotion that is also a pathocentric virtue. This definition creates a dynamic view of compassion as a desire to alleviate the suffering of others, the capacity to act on behalf of others and a commitment to sustain engagement with the suffering other. To weave this vision of compassion as a habitus rather than a theoretical construct, the article develops three phases of compassion: seeing, companioning and sighing. This framework deepens and augments a pastoral theological paradigm of compassion with the aim of inculcating an inhabited compassion in caregivers and the communities in which they participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparing three concepts of mercy, compassion, and love, this essay describes, first, with Kasper, divine mercy or compassion as a central attribute of God's love, calling for the same human response to suffering. Second, with Metz, it situates compassion within a political theology, but develops it further as central concept of ethics. Third, with Nussbaum, the essay understands compassion and love as a bridge between political norms of justice and the social realities of injustice and indifference. In the second part, the essay takes up the political-theological lens of historical reason; it interprets compassion for justice as a practice of critical witnessing and resistance, and transformative solidarity. It upholds the anamnetic theology of God's compassion and mercy as the ultimate divine gift of justice, to be remembered in the face of forgetting and indifference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's proposal and insight in using poetry to cure compassion fatigue. Topics mentioned include the example of a parishioner who shared his love in poetry, the portray of poetry as a contemplative discipline, and the experience of reading poetry which is called by poet W. H. Auden as a prayer technique.

In 2008, actor Chiranjeevi founded the political party Praja Rajyam (People’s Rule) and carried the emotional style of the compassionate angry man from the silver screen onto the electoral platform of the South Indian state Andhra Pradesh. Although Chiranjeevi had secured his place as the most successful star of popular Telugu cinema through the genre of the mass film in the 1980s, the ‘Megastar’ failed to mobilise a majority of his fans to become his voters. The article addresses the tensions between the politics of representation on the screen and on the campaign trail by focusing on the image of Chiranjeevi as a leader figure and the feeling community that complemented his emotional style. It suggests that when the star suddenly transformed his image from an angry rebel to that of a compassionate patron, his emotional style stopped resonating with the feeling community his own films had created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of the idiom "to return" which refers to the forgiveness and compassion of a deity in quranic Arabic and ancient Semitic languages. Topics include Yahweh's returning concept in biblical literature, expression of foregiveness and compassion as return, and theme of the returning deity in the Aramaic dialect of Tadmor/Palmyra.

Based on case studies and qualitative interviews conducted with 40 stakeholders in five SMEs, or so called Anatolian tigers, in Turkey, this article has explored what collective spirituality and Turkish Islamic business ethics entail and how they shape organizational values using diverse stakeholder perspectives. The study has revealed six emergent discourses around collective spirituality and Islamic business ethics: Flying with both wings; striving to transcend egos; being devoted to each other; treating people as whole persons; upholding an ethics of compassion; and leaving a legacy for future generations. These discourses are organized around three themes of collective spirituality, respectively: Transcendence, connectedness, and virtuousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retribution in Deuteronomy is bound up with the character of God, known from dealings in history with Israel and other nations. Retribution is applied according to a certain rightness of things, or “justice and righteousness,” rooted in the person of God, so that God’s love and compassion have the final determining word. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In early 2011, the To Our House (TOH) thermal shelter program opened its doors to homeless men in the New River Valley Area (NRV) of Virginia. The program was a grass roots response to the death of a wellknown local homeless man and the goal of the program is to provide winter shelter for single adult men by using rotating host sites at local churches. We highlight that in the NRV local churches have sought to remedy a socially unjust situation by providing shelter for men that was previously unavailable. We illustrate that faith-based outreach in the New River Valley can be viewed as positive compassionate outreach by a caring community. While acknowledging the benefits of this compassionate outreach to more than 25 men in the NRV, we also offer a cautionary note regarding the dilemmas of this outreach suggesting that it has the potential to mask the problems of the local housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the vision and emphasis of Pope Francis on love, mercy, and compassion, and his perception on the role of the Catholic Church as a place of mercy. Topics discussed include the books "Walking the Way of Jesus: An Essay on Christian Spirituality," by James Cuskelly and "Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life," by Walter Kasper, the revelation of the name of God in the Old Testament, and the commitment of God to justice.

The article offers the author's insights on the relational aspects of personhood and in faith as a knowing of God. Topics discussed include physical contact of Jesus with the leper or individual who is unclean, God's love and compassion that embraces humans vulnerability, and kenotic theology of theologian Oliver Davies, arguing that the compassion displays the other character of consciousness.

In the Questions on charity in the ST (2a2ae, qq. 23-46), Aquinas considers at length the vices opposed to charity, omitting altogether any Question on a vice opposed to mercy. What does the omission reveal about mercy and its difficulties? First, I reject ready-to-hand explanations of the omission. Second, I consider the relation between mercy and compassion, showing that for Thomas the primary impediments to compassion are less vices than psychological forces irreducible to any single vice. Third, I turn to a different set of obstacles to mercy – acts that can arise from compassion, but do not help (and often harm) the person in need. Given these difficulties, how can Thomas take the practice of virtuous mercy to be generally possible? I conclude with a discussion of suffering and the gift of wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores the power of Biblical patriarch Joseph in Josephus's account of his story in the book of Genesis. It analyzes the unforgiving and compassionate responses by Joseph and his brothers to the pain experienced by others. The account is recognized for showing the feelings and passions of characters in the Bible. Also discussed are Greek philosopher Aristotle's observations on the nature of pity.

The article explores the question of emotions in historian Josephus's account of the appeal by Judah to Joseph to release Benjamin for the sake of their father, Jacob, in the book of Genesis. It highlights the questions of guilt, pity and power in the account. Other topics discussed include the extraordinary virtue showed by Joseph and the appeal as the model of divine pity and compassion.

Our ten-year study examined the association between compassionate love (CL)-other-centered love, as well as compassionate self-love, and spiritual coping (SC)- the use of spirituality (connection to a Higher Presence or God) as a means to cope with trauma, and gender differences in 177 people living with HIV (PLWH). In a secondary data analysis of six-monthly interviews/essays, we coded five criteria of CL and rated the benefit of CL giving, receiving and self for the recipient. Synergistically, we rated longitudinal SC based on coding of 18 coping strategies. Overall, mean CL towards self was very high, followed by CL receiving and giving, while mean SC was moderately high. Women, in comparison to men, perceived higher benefit from SC and giving CL to others. Overall, CL towards self had the strongest association with SC, more pronounced in women than in men. Beyond gender, only CL for the self was a significant predictor of SC. Although there was a moderate association between SC and the perceived benefit from giving CL, after controlling for gender, this association was present in men only. Conversely, receiving CL from others yields a stronger association with SC in women than in men. Women perceived to benefit significantly more from SC and giving CL to others compared to men, whereas no gender differences were found on perceiving benefit from receiving CL from others or oneself. In conclusion, although women perceive more benefit from giving CL to others than men, this does not explain the higher benefit from SC among women. Ultimately, both men and women perceive to benefit more from SC the more they exhibit CL towards self and thus spiritual counseling should keep the importance of the balance between CL towards self and others in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers author's insights on death shrines and memorials in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after violent gun homicides. Topics mentioned include the introductory Catholic remarks on the research, overview of the debates in the Second Amendment, the discussion on the artifacts and symbol system and relating them to black spirituality, and the suggestions on acting empathetically and compassionately.

Resala, Egypt's largest volunteer-driven charity organization, engages in a range of activities, from distributing food in slums to visiting orphanages. Although its volunteers may appear to participate in a global moral economy of compassion, many of them articulate an Islamic voluntarism that contrasts with what they see as a Christian approach to suffering and with the more secular motivations of so much civic and humanitarian work today. Focusing on three Resala volunteers, I look at how Islam is imagined and mobilized to compel, make sense of, and justify giving in particular contexts and in practice. The volunteers' stories reveal the multilayeredness of their ethics and trouble the link between compassion and voluntarism. By foregrounding religious duty, the volunteers offer insight into a nonliberal, nonhumanist ethics of voluntarism and question the centrality of compassion as a mobilizing force in the world and as an explanatory force in anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a revised and expanded version of the talk given by Johann Baptist Metz after being awarded the Salzburg University Week Theology Prize (2007). It offers a picture of the new political theology, of how he seeks to describe and construe a theology "facing the world." He begins by acknowledging his debt to Karl Rahner, then discusses how confrontations with various "worlds"--World War II, Auschwitz, the world church, and globalization--brought him to construct theological categories and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instead of an extreme asceticism characterized by imperturbability, Evagrius's thinking should rather be characterized by two often overlooked virtues, compunction and compassion, that, together with the other virtues and imperturbability, form the systole and diastole of the monk's life. These make it possible for the call of the Prophets and the words of the Psalmist to take up personal residence in each individual, on behalf of others, in the gentle sympathy of divine love. Divine sympathy is, in fact, the model for understanding the range and root of compassion, for it is present in a remarkable way in both piercing repentance for our weakness and loving mercy for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the basic Christian context of the heart's mission, spirituality and culture. Pointed out is the emphasis of the spirituality of the heart of the person's true meaning. It attributes the development of the spirituality of the heart culture to confidence in God's compassionate and loving relationship and commitment to people.

A Thai company organizes a weekly sermon and meditation session for its clients and members. We hypothesized that vipassana meditation's positive effects in work would be manifested in peace of mind, loving kindness, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), that peace of mind would predict OCB, and that loving kindness would mediate the relationship of peace of mind to OCB. Peace of mind is operationally defined as the experience of inner peace and harmony; loving kindness as the thoughts, words, and acts of kindness extended to all creatures; and OCB as individual behavior that involves courtesy, civic virtue, sportsmanship, conscientiousness, and altruism. We conducted a study among 147 vipassana meditation participants; the results supported the hypotheses. Participants' peace of mind predicted OCB and loving kindness significantly mediated the peace of mind-OCB relationship. The beneficial effects of vipassana meditation suggest its adoption by organizations to foster efficient functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the conflicts arising from St. Brendan's Catholic Church's decision to offer sanctuary to a homeless encampment on its property. On one front, church officials battled the City of Bothell, Washington in court over the church's constitutional right to shelter the homeless. On another front, St. Brendan's became ensnared in debates with members of the First Baptist Church and parents of children at Heritage Christian School about the "appropriate" Christian response to homelessness. These arguments centered on what form of "compassion" should be demonstrated, how best to "care" for the homeless, and what it means to be a "good neighbor." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a speech by Shimon Cowen of Campion College in Victoria, Australia on compassion and its association with religion. Topics of the speech included the conduct of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and the so-called Third Reich; why people need to be tutored in their concepts of compassion or any other moral attribute for that matter; and how kindness is related to compassion but it is not the same as compassion.