| This thesis in practical theology explores empathy, a concept often idealized and under-examined in popular parlance. Particularly examined is a mode of empathy called "passive consumption" in which the empathizer is expected to take in and contain the story of the other from an isolated position. To explore this dynamic, four methodological inquiries are applied: historical, postcolonial, psychoanalytic, and theological. It is hypothesized that empathy as passive consumption might stem from anxieties around what in psychoanalytical terms, can be called the "dead motherland." In theological terms, empathy as passive consumption operates out of a theology of scarcity as opposed to a theology of abundance. In the second section of the thesis, an alternative model of empathy is articulated using Carl Jung's description of the relationship of ego to Self. In this reconfigured empathy, the empathizer is decentered by and related to the story of the other, as well as implicated in a larger "Self-story" that must include a social register. Two case studies this empathy in practice are examined. Ultimately this thesis seeks to offer both theoretical understandings and practical guidelines to persons of faith seeking to engage and care for a suffering world. |
