"So what is Empathy? Empathy is the ability to comprehend with accuracy the precise thoughts and motivations of other people in such a way that they would say "Yes! That is exactly where I am coming from!"

I have, for a long time, been turned off by some models of psychology because they seemed constructed and/or contrived. For some, "New is True", but as far as I go, if I can't locate the idea somewhere in history, it's as good as rubbish. There is nothing new under the sun.

Empathy, popularized by Carl Rogers and described above, is the foundation of many current therapeutic and relational models. I have been pretty impressed by what I have read and, really, the idea makes sense: people want to be understood, and really just understanding someone often makes a great deal of difference. Mostly nobody does this, or at least not for long enough anyways.

so far so good. But if the first we're hearing of it is from Rogers in the 50's, we have to explain how it is that x thousand years of human history have gone by without the benefit of this concept. Is there any biblical justification for it?

Right off the bat "He who answers before he hears, it is a folly and a shame to him." Proverbs 18:13 This is pretty plain. Take a second to listen and hear the person before you go beaking off. Fair enough. Is THIS anybody's "life verse"?

Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin."

This is interesting in many ways. First of course, the obvious and important point, that God has been where we are. The second, is that God, on his own initiative performed and performs feats of empathy that would be the envy of any therapist. The goal of empathy is to experience life as the other person, or understand life as the other person. God, through Jesus, went to the trouble of becoming us for 33 years. On his own initiative. Further, generally through omnipresence, and specifically through his indwelling of us, it is possible to imagine (if the time is taken) the level of depth which informs God's intimately personal understanding of each of us. Things that we are blind to in ourselves are plain as day to Him, not, (dare I say) because of His Omniscience, but rather as a result of His time on earth and His Omnipresence. Emmanu-el.

And so empathy. It is nice, ever so nice, to find every once in a while (for more than that would be luxury), that a concept that works and makes sense need not be tossed aside on account of its modern 'discovery', but can be embraced, as it has foundations, not only in Scripture, but in the essential nature of God's actions towards his be-loved.