Beyond the Empathy Trap: Cultivating Freedom and Solidarity in an Ethic of Care

A radical rethinking of empathy’s role in light of its weaponization

Justice-motivated caregivers have long viewed empathy as a central tool for addressing political division, intergenerational trauma, racism, sexism, and even evil itself. However, social theorists and scholars of religion who study the political behavior of evangelical and protestant Christians are noting new and unexpected limits for the ethics of empathy. How does one empathize with those who explicitly refuse to reciprocate empathy, who weaponize power imbalances for harmful political ends, and who dismiss all invitations to accountability as acts of intolerance? If working toward justice is what matters most, then these efforts to empathize may actually backfire against practices of political solidarity. There must a better way to work through these potential traps and work more effectively toward justice and healing.

Beyond the Empathy Trap explains why empathy limits interpersonal ethics and how justice-motivated caregivers can better prioritize their psychological investments within their work. Drawing deeply from psychoanalysis, phenomenology, philosophy of religion, and pastoral theology, Peter Capretto argues that while empathy remains an essential resource for many forms of social healing, empathy also reaches unavoidable impasses when social injustice targets identity itself. By translating insights from the psychology of religion into high-stakes conflict settings, Capretto’s analysis offers the practical payoff of unmasking how political actors with asymmetric power relations frequently exploit the idea of empathic reciprocity as a trap to disarm caregivers and activists in their practices of solidarity.