Are feelings just the caboose? I became a Christian in the late 1980s. At a very early stage of my faith, I was trained in doing evangelism with the “Four
One of the most popular and thoughtful evangelical bloggers on the web, Scot McKnight discusses theology and current events in conversation with others.
My daughter told a joke this week. "What do you call a priest who becomes a lawyer? A father-in-law!" She laughed so hard I couldn t help but join her. It
Racial Reconciliation Efforts in the Works Part 2: Churches Take Action christianitytoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from christianitytoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This issue is big enough that I’m posting my Substack post here.
The Centrality of Empathy for Godly Pastors
It has been brought to my attention by a number of friends, readers, and students that some pastors and professors and leaders are
putting down empathy as a virtue for Christians and especially for pastors. I have myself heard a pastor in Chicagoland say he does not have empathy. From what I’ve seen of him I would agree, but I say so in grief.
From the best I can tell these denouncers of empathy are distinguishing the virtue of compassion from the potential vice of empathy. The former means to “suffer with” and the latter “to suffer in.” Or, to “feel with” and “feel in.” The former is rational; the latter appears to be less (that) rational, and perhaps irrational. At least in their constructions, it’s OK to suffer with but not to suffer in.