Is compassion an emotion or a virtue? What characterizes a Christian understanding of compassion? What is its relationship to the Passion of Christ, to mercy and to the love for one's fellow human beings? The authors of this volume examine these issues from the perspective of cultural studies, philosophy and theology. In discussion with the Aristotelian definition of compassion, biblical traditions such as the story of the Good Samaritan and the views of Luther, Nietzsche, Bonhoeffer, Nussbaum, Murdoch, Roberts and Winch, among others, they attempt to delineate the complex landscape of the manifold uses of a controversial concept.