Maureen

 H.  O’Connell.  Compassion:  Loving  Our  Neighbor  in  an  Age  of  Globalization.  
New  York:  Orbis  Books,  2009.  
 
This  book  is  a  bit  different  than  many  we  have  reviewed  in  this  course.    I  like  this  
book  because  it  looks  at  compassion  through  a  number  of  lenses.  This  includes  
philosophical  ethics,  theological  ethics,  political  philosophy  and  political  theology.  It  
also  looks  at  American  social  policy  globally  in  the  context  of  compassion  and  
applies  principles  of  compassionate  action  in  the  context  of  the  aftermath  of  
hurricane  Katrina  in  the  Gulf  coast  area.  
 
Written  from  a  Christian  perspective  and  using  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  
from  the  gospel  of  Luke  as  a  foundational  paradigm,  O’Connell  looks  at  how  we  
decide  who  our  ‘neighbor’  is  in  a  world  that  is  defined  by  a  global  socioeconomic  
and  political  system.    She  describes  how  the  forces  of  globalization  have  in  fact  
increased  and  acted  to  perpetuate  massive  social  suffering.    Written  from  the  stance  
of  liberation  theology,  “Compassion”  sees  middle  class  North  American  Christians  as  
needing  to  look  at  our  contemporary  world  from  the  perspective  of  the  poor  and  
marginalized.  
 
This  book  is  based  upon  O’Connell’s  doctoral  dissertation  and  it  is  full  of  interesting  
theological  and  philosophical  perspectives  on  the  virtue  of  compassion  as  the  center  
of  Western  Christianity.    After  an  introductory  chapter,  O’Connell’s  offers  two  
chapters  that  review  the  place  of  compassion  in  the  history  of  philosophical  ethics  
and  theological  ethics.    Next  she  looks  in  detail  at  two  key  philosophical  and  
theological  figures:  the  philosopher  and  legal  theorist  Martha  Nussbaum  and  the  
Roman  Catholic  theologian  Johan  Baptist  Metz.  
 
 Nussbaum  is  a  world-­‐class  philosopher  and  legal  scholar  who  holds  multiple  
academic  appointments  at  the  University  of  Chicago,    in  the  schools  of  divinity  and  
law  as  well  as  in  the  philosophy  department.    An  incredible  public  intellectual,  
Nussbaum  has  argued  against  the  use  extreme  rationalism  in  law  and  philosophy  
and  calls  for  attention  to  be  paid  to  emotion  and  story  telling.  She  uses  the  standard  
of  “human  flourishing”  to  evaluate  the  success  of  socioeconomic  systems.      In  this  
context,  her  magnum  opus  is  “Upheavals  of  Emotion.”  
 
Metz  is  a  major  European  Roman  Catholic  theologian  who  is  a  key  figure  in  political  
theology.    The  chapter  on  the  Metz’  theology    underscores  the  need  for  dramatic  
social  transformation  when  looking  at  the  contemporary  global  context  and  looks  to  
memory,  narrative  and  social  solidarity  as  important  components  for  doing    
theology.    Both  Nussbaum  and  Metz  offer  solid,  insightful  intellectual  foundations  
for  the  significance  of  compassion  for  all  of  us  in  the  context  of  the  incredible  human  
and  environmental  suffering  that  has  been  created  as  a  byproduct  of  globalization.  
 
After  offering  an  excellent  review  of  past  and  contemporary  intellectual  and  
religious  grounding  for  the  concept  of  compassion,  she  applies  this  perspective  in  
examining  the  Katrina  catastrophe.    We  can  easily  apply  McConnell’s  work  to  the  
present  day:  the  nuclear  disaster  in  Japan;  the  political  upheavals  in  the  Middle  East;  
and  the  political  and  economic  conflict  of  2011  in  the  United  States.  
 
This  book  is  not  an  easy  read.    However,  O’Connell  brings  together  a  number  of  key  
philosophical  and  theological  thinkers  and  points  to  key  discussions  relevant  to  
compassion  in  their  work.    For  students  thinking  of  further  developing  their  work  
with  compassion  in  a  more  formal  context,  for  example  in  theological  writing,  this  
book  is  an  invaluable  source  that  I  highly  recommend.    Its  concluding  chapter  also  
offers  an  interesting  application  of  a  compassionate  perspective  in  a  concrete  
example  of  tragedy  in  the  context  of  globalization  and  the  rather  poor  response  of  
North  American  religious  communities  to  this  tragedy.