The Bart Ehrman Blog - Forum: Other Relevant Issues

Robert on A Personal View of Some Current Events

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 19:58:54 -0400

Robert said

Episode 3 is now available The fourth and and final episode should be available in about a week.

Stephen on The Christian Psychopath

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:25:03 -0400

Books & Videos whose "ideas" are discussed in this here post:

** you do not have permission to see this link **

Note: I don't expect anyone here to actually read these books and watch all these videos unless you're really interested. I linked to them to demonstrate that even if many Christians are unaware there is a conversation going on amongst Evangelicals. There's more - much more. These are merely the chief "influencers."

As I've pointed out before the future of the church in America as it loses it's privileged place in our culture is a subject of ongoing interest to me. Over the last five years or so I've noticed the growth of an interesting topic of conversation among Evangelicals. The so-called Culture Wars never cease but they often assume strange shapes. Why would Evangelicals become consumed by the subject of "Empathy?"

First of all what do we mean by the word, "empathy?" (It's interesting how often these folks attacking the concept fail to really define what it is they're attacking.) How is "empathy" distinguished from its cousin, "sympathy?"

Sympathy means feeling compassion or pity for another's suffering. It retains a distance between subject and object. Empathy means to identify with another's suffering and in some sense to share it. It compresses the distance between subject and object, even in some circumstances to eliminate it.

Sympathy says: I am sad that you are sad.

Empathy says: I share your sadness.

Now this distinction is certainly the stuff of moral philosophy but why does it so obsess Christians? Aren't these feelings their very bread and butter (or would that be wine)? I mean, John 3:16, right? Philippians 2, right?

Weeelll...no.

The truth (he said non-ironically) is that this argument is primarily theological and ideological. Empathy compromises objective moral truth and orthodox beliefs. How so? Empathy prioritizes feelings over God's commands. Feeling with another can cloud your judgment, leading to compromise on moral issues. Emotional connection is subjective. God's commands are "objective truth." In this view, empathy is seen as a tool of cultural relativism used to validate sinful lifestyles rather than insisting on a call for repentance.

Then, in this conversation, empathy is associated with other doubtful concepts such as a quest for social justice, political correctness, or, gulp, "wokeism." Evangelicals perceive empathy as a gateway drug for "progressive" ideologies that are deemed threatening to traditional church teachings.

These influencers insist on the sharpness of the distinction between compassion and empathy. Remember that compassion retains a distance between subject and object and as we'll see this distance become very important here. In fact I think this "distance" between subject and object is the very battlefield where this war is being waged. Empathy creates intimacy and relationship.

At some point I noticed an aspect of this conversation that I haven't seen much discussion about. Most of the folks I've called influencers who have set the terms of the discussion seem to come out of the Reformed (Calvinist) theological tradition. It helps to review some of the basic assumptions at work behind this tradition.

Calvinism insists on the absolute sovereignty of God and places great stock on the rigid, unyielding authority of objective, unchanging truth. Human beings are fallen and corrupt (the doctrine of Total Depravity.) Naturally, a theological system that prioritizes submission to an external standard of truth that admits of no dispute is inherently suspicious of an emotion-driven practice like empathy, which centers on internal human feelings.

Consequent to this viewpoint there flows a heavy emphasis on structure and order. Calvinists rely heavily on Augustine’s idea of the Ordo Amoris (the right ordering of affections). God and His law must always reign supreme. Empathy undermines this order by allowing emotional distress to subvert God's moral law. Primacy shifts to the one who suffers.

In the video I linked to above with the conversation between Doug Wilson and Joe Rigney they elaborated on the value of the distinction between sympathy and empathy. That distance that sympathy allows you to "help" someone while standing firmly on the solid rock of Biblical truth, whereas empathy demands that you descend to the depths with them. Calvinism values intellectual distance, nonporous boundaries, and, of course(!), pastoral authority. The idea of abandoning your objective platform to "inhabit" another person's subjective reality is viewed by these theologians as a dangerous surrender. Calvinism categorizes the world into absolute binaries: the Elect vs. the Reprobate. This framework allows believers to "steel their hearts" against sin and protect orthodox doctrine.

Now I don't believe in "guilt by association" but it is interesting that our modern Christian Nationalist movement also draws heavily from this well of thought.

But what really astounds this ex-Christian is how utterly alien to the original sense of the Christian mission this is. I would love to hear one of these folks explicate chapter two of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Isn't it precisely what Jesus did, to enter into the life of the human, to know all, endure all, so that he could transcend all? Paul explicitly tells us we should do as Christ did. Empty ourselves and take the form of the servant, right? I'm sure the Calvinists have an answer that satisfies themselves.

Lenin is reported to have said that he could not listen to Beethoven because the music made him want to be nice to people and sometimes you couldn't be nice. Sometimes it is necessary to bash heads to get things done. If you entered into emotional relationship with the Amalekites how could you cut the throats of their children?

But what class of human psychology automatically excludes empathy and identification with others?

Let me conclude by submitting for your consideration a new figure. The Christian Psychopath. A Christian who judges and condemns but cannot relate. A Christian who rejects love for duty and command. A Christian who empties himself, not of divinity, but of humanity. A psychopath worshipping a psychopath.

Judith on A Personal View of Some Current Events

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 10:03:40 -0400

One of my most fervent prayers is for a son who is often among bears, moose, mountain lions. It works! Once when encountering a bear coming his way, he turned and went the other way. That was that, thank heaven!

(Am hoping this isn't evangelizing!)

Stephen on A Personal View of Some Current Events

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:32:29 -0400

** you do not have permission to see this link **

Coincidence? I think not.

A close friend used to take delight in hearing about all the things that had changed around him that he hadn’t even noticed.

Yep. It's so hermetically sealed over here. Bruce I bet you know lots more about what's happening in the States than anybody over here knows what's happening in Europe. Nowhere else exists unless there's somewhere to bomb or we hear about a natural disaster.

** you do not have permission to see this link **

Robert on A Personal View of Some Current Events

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:18:23 -0400

Stephen said

Helen Young said
Stephen

Well, regardless, we shouldn't be destroying this Earth.

Well, in truth, the earth is not in danger. It has been rolling along for billions of years and will survive for billions more. What we are destroying is our place on the earth which got along fine before us and will do so after us. What is happening is best described, not as a murder, but as a suicide.

BJH1960 on A Personal View of Some Current Events

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 20:31:18 -0400

Thanks!

I was there for a month early last summer.

The longest I've ever been away is four years. When you'd go back then, you could sense the change and get just the slightest snippet of what Rip Van Winkle must have felt. A close friend used to take delight in hearing about all the things that had changed around him that he hadn't even noticed.

Stephen on A Personal View of Some Current Events

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:34:04 -0400

We’ll be finally heading back to the States and will be there until about a week before Christmas.

Have a good trip! How long has it been since you were over here? I'll be interested in your impressions.

BJH1960 on A Personal View of Some Current Events

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 07:25:02 -0400

There are still places on earth where one can behold the heavens unimpeded!

Thankfully, there are.

We'll be finally heading back to the States and will be there until about a week before Christmas. If things go according to plan, we'll head up north one weekend. While we might miss out on the peak ** you do not have permission to see this link **and visible, weather permitting.

BJH1960 on Debunking Conspiracies

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 21:00:03 -0400

Robert said:

I still can’t help breaking into tears at the beauty of Jean Valjean’s life-long repentance for stealing a coin from a child even after Monseigneur Bienvenue gave him a new lease on life and freedom. Thus as a remedy for de Musset’s sadness, despair and weeping, I offer the hopeful prayer of the mature Jean Valjean for the providential return of Marius Pontmercy to Cossette. Perhaps all is not lost?

What a powerful character in an equally powerful novel.

And the candlesticks that he kept...

Robert on The Ugliest Things about Atheism

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 17:36:17 -0400

Very thoughtful approach. The difficulty of replacing Christian church communities in America, leaving a void, reminds me the recently discussed void left after the French Revolution.

Judith on Debunking Conspiracies

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 16:25:31 -0400

It has been years since hearing this. Thank you!

Robert on Debunking Conspiracies

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 16:02:20 -0400

Having seen it in London shortly after its début, I remain in love with the musical Les Misérables. After many years, I recently even lowered myself to watch the Hollywood movie version, which I must confess I also grew to to love despite the semi-realistic acting interfering with the quality of the singing vocals. Acting, even semi-realistic acting, is also an art, right?

When I explain to my daughter some of the backstory from Victor Hugo's more optimistic novel, I still can't help breaking into tears at the beauty of Jean Valjean's life-long repentance for stealing a coin from a child even after Monseigneur Bienvenue gave him a new lease on life and freedom. Thus as a remedy for de Musset's sadness, despair and weeping, I offer the hopeful prayer of the mature Jean Valjean for the providential return of Marius Pontmercy to Cossette. Perhaps all is not lost?

How fitting that Colm Wilkinson played Jean Valjean in the original London and Broadway stage productions, and then played the Bishop in the 2012 Hollywood film adaptation:

In line with my musical eclecticism, I also offer you a version of this prayful song that departs from the lily-white London experience into the American tradition of Negro spiritual harmonies that would eventually evolve into the lily-white barbershop quartet genre:

BJH1960 on Debunking Conspiracies

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 11:01:28 -0400

I really enjoyed that.

Hopefully, I'll spend time tomorrow with the two poems about God that are mentioned.

I thought this was great:

He reviews the great thinkers—Plato, Aristotle, Descartes—and concludes that human philosophy has spent 5,000 years explaining everything only to leave us with nothing but doubt.

BJH1960 on Debunking Conspiracies

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 10:35:33 -0400

Thanks, Robert.

I'm looking forward to having a read.

Robert on Debunking Conspiracies

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 10:34:58 -0400

Of course. Show it to whomever you like (assuming there's not personal info about me?). Yes, I have seen that movie. Don't remember much about it, though.