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Author Mirguet, Françoise, 1980- author.

Title An early history of compassion : emotion and imagination in Hellenistic Judaism / Francoise Mirguet
Published Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2017
©2017

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 271 pages)
Contents Cover -- Half-title page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Between Power and Vulnerability -- 1.1 Feeling for Othersâ#x80;#x99; Pain in the Greek Language -- 1.2 Josephus: Pity and Sympathy as Privilege -- 1.3 The Testament of Zebulun: Compassion as Vulnerability -- 1.4 Philoâ#x80;#x99;s Pity: Between Emotion and Virtue -- 1.5 When Vulnerability and Empowerment Intertwine -- Chapter 2 Found in Translation -- 2.1 Compassion in Biblical Hebrew? -- 2.2 The Greek Scriptures: A Linguistic Space for Emotions
2.3 Pity: Twists and Turns2.4 Conclusion: An â#x80;#x9C;Aura of Antiquityâ#x80;#x9D; -- Chapter 3 Within the Fabric of Society -- 3.1 Sirach: Pity as Negotiation of Status -- 3.2 Two Foundation Myths of Pity -- 3.3 Receiving Pity: An Experience of Humiliation and Emasculation -- 3.4 Feeling Pity: A Feminine and Feminizing Attitude -- 3.5 Reclaiming Masculinity by Withholding Sympathy -- 3.6 Conclusion: What Pity Does and Costs -- Chapter 4 Bonds in Flux -- 4.1 Tobit: The Invention of a Diaspora Community -- 4.2 Pity as Inclusion in a Common Humanity
4.3 Pity as a Dual Marker of Identity4.4 A Gentle Emotion That Inspires Action -- 4.5 Conclusion: Why Is the Love Command Reshaped into Compassion? -- Chapter 5 In Dialogue with the Empire -- 5.1 Pity in Late Hellenistic and Early Imperial Narrative Literature -- 5.2 Imagining the Care for All Others in Philosophical Literature -- 5.3 Intersections: The Otherâ#x80;#x99;s Suffering in an Ethic Focused on the Self -- 5.4 Echoes in Imperial Propaganda -- 5.5 A Minority Cultureâ#x80;#x99;s Engagement with a Dominant Ideology -- Conclusion: A Discourse of the Other -- Bibliography
IndexesGreek and Roman Sources -- Jewish and Christian Sources
Summary "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"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Notes Print version record
Subject Compassion.
Judaism -- History -- Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D.
Jews -- History -- 586 B.C.-70 A.D.
Jewish literature -- History and criticism
RELIGION -- Judaism -- General.
Compassion
Jewish literature
Jews
Judaism -- Post-exilic period (Judaism)
Frühjudentum
Hellenistisch-jüdische Literatur
Literatur
Mitgefühl
Mitleid
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781108524476
1108524478
9781108522984
110852298X
9781108515535
1108515533