Rethinking the Authority of Those Who Suffer Compassion as an Interruptive Practice in Peace Education in Polarized Times

Abstract

Against the backdrop of increasing social polarization and global crises, suffering emerges as an independent ethical-political force that challenges perception, judgment, and action without being reducible to instrumental use. This article examines compassion as a relational-reflexive and performative practice that intertwines affective resonance, ethical responsiveness, and situational possibilities for action. From this perspective, compassion can interrogate established interpretive frameworks, encourage engaged dialogue, and tangibly reveal responsibility in relational interactions without imposing normative prescriptions. Theological reflections from biblical-prophetic traditions, New Testament ethics, and the Islamic raḥma framework are integrated with the insights of Johann Baptist Metz to provide an analytical lens through which compassion may foster and facilitate ethical behavior. Relational anthropology, alongside ethical considerations by Nussbaum, Lévinas, and Butler, highlights the contingent and relationally mediated character of freedom, responsibility, and vulnerability. In educational settings, compassion can be examined through narrative, dialogical, and interactive approaches to reflect on relational tensions between perception, judgment, and situated action. This perspective offers the potential to cultivate ethical sensitivity and to familiarize learners with relationally responsible options for action.