Original Research - Special Collection: Yolanda Dreyer Festschrift

Inhabiting compassion: A pastoral theological paradigm

Phil C. Zylla
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 73, No 4 | a4644 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i4.4644 | © 2017 Phil C. Zylla | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 09 May 2017 | Published: 31 August 2017

About the author(s)

Phil C. Zylla, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Canada and Department Practical Theology, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

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.

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