Compassion in Jewish, Christian and Secular Nursing. A Systematic Comparison of a Key Concept of Nursing

The major thesis of this research is that the biblical topos of the Compassionate God was the original model of compassionate nursing and that this topos represents the core of the ethics of compassion and of caring in nursing today. The analysis of the literary sources of the first four centuries CE supports this assumption for the eastern Mediterranean area, i.e. the birthplace of Jewish and Christian nursing (see first part of this article). Works of love and compassion on behalf of the suffering and the sick were one of their main features, and distinguished them from the polytheistic Greek and Roman culture. In the course of this period “the Church” and “the Synagogue” became the controlling institutions of nursing. They contributed to their consolidation. This is not the case for modern and post-modern nursing. Since the Enlightenment these are no longer determined by religious institutions. Secular societal movements and the rising of the medical