Bat Manyika contemplates social media activism, drawing on his academic knowledge and practiced experience of the New Testament, which he studies as both church leader at CityHill Church, Johannesburg and PhD student at the South African Theological Seminary. Reflection On the 7th January 2015 the world awoke to the harrowing news of an extremist attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris. News outlets across the globe covered this sad incident in intricate detail. Shortly after, political figures of all … [Read more...] about “To tweet or not to tweet?”: Selective empathy in a world of hashtag revolutions (Scholar’s Compass)
empathy
“Uncommon Decency” in the context of Pluralism
Christian hearts must be open to other people. God wants that of us. That is what I have just been arguing. But just how open are we supposed to be? We live today in the midst of many lifestyles, many systems of thought--don't we run the risk of having our hearts pulled in so many different directions that we finally have no center of our own?" -- Richard J. Mouw, Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World (Revised and Expanded, InterVarsity Press, 2010), 80. It's not surprising that Richard J. Mouw … [Read more...] about “Uncommon Decency” in the context of Pluralism
Cultivating empathic sensitivies vital to “Uncommon Decency”
Civility requires that we reduce the psychological distance between ourselves and others. We need to develop a sense of commonality with people who initially strike us as very different from ourselves. One important means of doing this is by cultivating empathy. "Empathy" literally means "in-feeling" -- it is to project myself into another person's feelings so that I begin to understand what it is like to have his experiences. If I want to gain empathy for a neighbor who is consistently defensive and insulting, I can … [Read more...] about Cultivating empathic sensitivies vital to “Uncommon Decency”