Human Divinity

Abstract

Against the background of the Old Testament’s lack of unambiguousness regarding the divine nature of compassion and the narrative’s latent call to surmount human compassion and its dangers, the Judeo-Christian traditions of the post-biblical period weave a more complex and intricate picture. It may well have been the dramatic appearance of Jesus, the story of his crucifixion, the debates over his divinity, and the persecution of Christians in the first few centuries of the Common Era that laid the groundwork for the search for a tangible and concrete manifestation of compassion in human existence. Both in Christianity and in Judaism, figures began to appear, whose lives and actions embodied compassion, endowing them with the special status of good, pure people, and, later on, saints. In Christianity, these were people directly connected to Jesus — the apostles, the martyrs, and, especially, Mary, who, in the evolving world of Christian imagery, received the unofficial status of representative of all-embracing, unconditional, all-forgiving maternal compassion.