Early History of Compassion

"In this book, Françoise Mirguet traces the appropriation and reinterpretation of pity by Greek-speaking Jewish communities of late antiquity. Pity--sometimes also understood as compassion--is, in the literature of these communities, a spontaneous and embodied feeling, a virtue to extend to all human beings, or a precept of the Mosaic law. The requirement to feel for those who suffer sustains the identity of the Jewish minority, both creating continuity with its traditions and emulating dominant discourses. Through compassion, Jewish communities shape their complex sense of belonging in the imperial environment. Mirguet's book will be of interest to scholars of early Judaism and Christianity for its sensitivity to the role of feelings and imagination in the shaping of identity. An important contribution to the history of emotions, the book explores how compassion has come to be so highly valued, and sometimes politicized, in Western cultures"--