Case Studies in Effective Compassion

Day 4
Session 11
|
to
3:20 PM

Concern for the poor is an essential part of being a Christian. Yet Christians often don’t know how to effectively engage people who are in poverty, often coming from social and ethnic backgrounds very different from them. The temptation is to substitute emotion for reason and to offer transactional systems of care instead of the arduous task of encounter. Our presentation will offer a number of examples of U.S. organizations attempting to recapture the essence of effective compassion and to revive the principles that attended the birth of systems of care in early American life, while adapting these ideas to the present conditions of our society.

 

Recommended Readings

For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty by Anne R. Bradley and Art Linsley, eds.

Renewing American Compassion by Marvin Olasky

Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (and How to Reverse It) by Robert D. Lupton

From Dependence to Dignity: How to Alleviate Poverty Through Church-Centered Microfinance by Brian Fikkert and Russell Mask

Further readings can be found in the handout below.

Course Years:

2024,
2020,
2019

Instructor