The most profound thought from yesterday’s classes was this from Thomas Oden: Empathy is the capacity to use one’s imaginative faculties to enter into the world of another.
Corporate empathy, on the side of the Church, may just be the credible factor in our ongoing re-entrance into the cultural discussions of our generation.
Empathy steps into one’s hell, identifies, then leads one out (one foot in, one foot out).
Extraction throws a rescue line, screams in savior language, and seeks to drag one out (both feet out).
The most effective empathy puts one foot in the world of another, and keeps one foot in our own world.
Like a quicksand rescue, the person in crisis would be quite happy for you not to enter fully into their world.
We step in, support and lead one into another realm. I.e. We start where another is at; not where we are.
