What if Jesus did not come to die for our sins? What if, instead, Jesuss life and death was intended to provide a way out of our shame? While traditional Christian teachings about the atonement emphasize sin as guilt and transgression against Gods will and commandments, Frank Woggon points out that clinical spiritual care reveals that the human condition is predominantly marked by shame rather than guilt.
In The Empathic God, Woggon examines myopic readings of the Jesus event that, in turn, have embedded distortions into traditional paradigms of the atonement. In contrast, Woggon mines narratives of the human condition to engage in a critical examination of the Jesus story. As a clinician and ordained Baptist minister, Woggon presents the Jesus event as Gods empathic initiative toward humanity and convincingly argues that salvation comes through empathy rather than forgiveness.
Woggons work constructs a clinical theology of "at-onement" from the perspective of clinical spiritual care. The Empathic God calls for a practical response of caring participation in Gods ongoing work of salvation through an empathic praxis of spiritual care. Most importantly, The Empathic God takes seriously that lived human experience is the starting point for theological exploration rather than doctrine.
This book will help practitioners and students of spiritual care in the Christian tradition to reflect more critically on the intersection of spiritual care practice and theology. The book also will challenge pastors, ministers of pastoral care, chaplains, pastoral counselors, spiritually oriented therapists to interrogate and re-interpret traumatic, shame-filled Christian teachings about the atonement so that they, too, can join in Gods ongoing and liberating work of salvation.
Frank Woggon, PhD, BCC is the Director of Chaplaincy Services at University of Louisville Health in Louisville, Kentucky, and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Louisville. He is an ACPE Certified Educator and is a board-certified chaplain in the Association of Professional Chaplains. As an ordained Baptist minister, he is endorsed by the Alliance of Baptists.
Preface
Introduction: Shame, Self, and Salvation: Constructing a Clinical Theology
Part One: A Problematic Atonement: Tradition and Re-visions
Chapter 1: Tradition
Chapter 2: Re-Visions
Part Two: Life Narratives of Shame, Salvation, and Redemption
