Pity/compassion and mercy in emerging Christianity and its contexts from theological, anthropological, and ethical perspectives with special consideration of emotion-theoretical questions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Konradt
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413664209

This project will analyze the understanding, meaning, and assessment of pity/compassion and mercy in the ethical conceptions of New Testament writings, examine these conceptions with regard to their theological and anthropological foundations, and expose their specific characteristics through comparison with significant concepts from “pagan” Greco-Roman antiquity – especially ancient philosophy (e.g., Aristotle, Seneca, and Plutarch) – as well as Early Judaism (esp. T. Zeb., Philo, Josephus). More specifically, in view of the fact that pity/compassion was typically subsumed under the category of “affects” in the ancient philosophical tradition, the project will face the challenge of interpreting the relevant New Testament texts against the background of ancient discussions of pity/compassion as an emotion in light of current moral-philosophical discourses – especially concerning the cognitive dimension of emotions and their significance for human action. At the same time, the project must consider whether pity/compassion can sufficiently be understood as a (complex) emotion in the Early Jewish and Christian tradition, or whether these texts tend to conceive of pity/compassion as a habitual attitude toward fellow human beings while simultaneously highlighting its practical consequences. Among the New Testament texts, the Gospel of Luke is of central importance for this question. Furthermore, the Gospel of Matthew and Paul’s Letters will be incorporated into the study.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants