Pity/compassion and mercy in emerging Christianity and its contexts from theological, anthropological, and ethical perspectives with special consideration of emotion-theoretical questions
Final Report Abstract
The aim of the project was to comparatively examine the understanding of compassion in NT Testament texts, with a focus on the Gospel of Luke, against the background of ancient philosophical and Early Jewish concepts, using ancient and current aspects of emotion theory. In the examined philosophical positions, compassion was categorized as an affect that has to be metriopathically regulated (Aristotle) or apathetically extinguished (Stoa). Because of the broad consensus that the divine is apathetic, God is not imagined as compassionate, whereas this is widely documented in the traditions of Israel. Philo shows a middle position that is not coherent down to the last detail, both with regard to the talk of God's mercy and with regard to the categorization of human mercy as an affect or virtue. A cognitive dimension of compassion could be identified in all analyzed text areas. Ancient criticisms of pity include its condescendence, the risk of hypocrisy, its potential conflict with righteous judgment, its inaccuracy and, in general, the loss of control. The NT texts as well as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs do not follow the pan-philosophical doctrine of God's apathy and the Aristotelian and Stoic principle that compassion can only be bestowed on undeserving sufferers. Luke's understanding of compassion implies a physical and a cognitive dimension and partially reveals an emotional script. Luke shows a nuanced use of the different terms: In the σπλαγχν-stem the focus is on the motivational aspect and the emotional episode, in the ἐλε-stem on the prosocial action and in οἰκτίρμων on the underlying disposition of concrete deeds. On an anthropological level, Luke's Gospel reveals a multidimensional understanding of human suffering (physical suffering, social stigmatization and lack of social participation, loss of loved ones, material need, desolation, sin). The mention of compassion is linked to the themes of death and life several times (Luke 1:78– 79; 7:11-17; 10:30-35; 15:11-32; 16:19-31). Moreover, human compassion involves effort because the other person can be disgusting or hostile to the subject. Since the norms of society, including its mechanisms of exclusion, are inscribed in disgust, Luke's attitude of compassion, which promotes the feeling of pity in disgusting situations, can be understood not least as a corrective to social rules of distinction. Contemporary criticisms of compassion only apply to a limited extent to Luke's understanding of compassion: accuracy is assumed (demonstrable for, e.g., Lk 15:17, 21, 24, 32), condescendence seems possible in view of the imbalance in power between subject and object, but is excluded by the propagated ethos (love of enemies, renunciation of status) and the repeatedly documented change of perspective in the context of compassion. Admittedly, the criticism that compassion is sometimes directed at the guilty is correct (cf. Luke 1:77f; 15:17-21; also 6:35–36).
