Passion and Compassion in Early Christianity

Description

Th is book examines how the early Christian elite articulated and cultivated the aff ective dimensions of compassion in a Roman world that promoted emotional tranquillity as the path to human fl ourishing. Drawing upon a wide range of early Christians from both east and west, Wessel situates each author in the broader cultural and intellectual context. Th e reader is introduced to the diverse conditions in which Christians felt and were urged to feel compassion in exemplary ways, and in which warnings were sounded against the possibilities for distortion and exploitation. Wessel argues that the early Christians developed literary methods and rhetorical techniques to bring about appropriate emotional responses to human suff ering. Th eir success in this regard marks the beginning of aff ective compassion as a Christian virtue. Comparison with early modern and contemporary philosophers and ethicists further demonstrates the intrinsic worth of the early Christian understanding of compassion. Preface and acknowledgments page ix Maps xi 1 Th e setting 1 Th e early Christian context 1 Th e New Testament and the ministry of Jesus 16 Defi nitions and method 21 Later trajectories 25 2 Suff ering 32 Building the leprosarium 36 Th e communal suff ering of the lepers 38 Leprosy as disease 48 Toward a moral psychology 56 Th e suff ering Christ 60 3 Disgust 65 Hands-on care by women 69 Contemporary theories of disgust 72 False boundaries between the self and the world 75 Mistaken notions of invulnerability 85 Suff ering and the ‘judicious spectator’ 92 4 Feelings 98 Grief as a virtue 100 Emotions at the theater 111 Th e problem with the wise man 115 Teaching compassion in sermons 121 Contemporary contexts 128 5 Charity 130 Justice and the Roman see 135 Care of the poor 140 Christology and the exchange of attributes 146 Th e call for compassion in northern Italy and southern Gaul 149 Suff ering under the Lombards 154 Th e compassion of shared grief 160 Th e care of souls in the world 164 Alms for the poor 169 6 Love 172 Th e will to love 175 Love and the common ‘logos’ 181 Human equality 185 Individuality 187 Exchange of attributes 192 Tranquility and compassion 194 Further comparisons 197 7 Refl ections 200 Notes 205 Select bibliography 245 Index 269